 defends his lawsuit against Dele Farotimi.){kind=link}
On Thursday, the founder of Afe Babalola University, Ado Ekiti, Aare Afe Babalola (SAN), defended his lawsuit against Dele Farotimi.
He denied the rumours spreading around that he is using his influence to intimidate Farotimi.
Recall that on Tuesday, Farotimi was arrested by Ekiti State Police in Lagos before being charged and detained by Ekiti State Magistrate Court for defamation charges.
During a chat with a journalist in Ado-Ekiti, Afe Babalola’s lawyer, a former Commissioner for Justice and Attorney-General in Ekiti State, Owoseni Ajayi said, “We cannot deal with him against the law.”
“That is not naturally possible, otherwise, we would not have reported him to the police for due process to take place. Immediately he was arrested by the police, he was arraigned in court.”
He further noted, “The people who are commenting on the matter do not know what he wrote, they are saying he was arbitrarily arrested, but he was not arbitrarily arrested.
“Why is anybody saying influence was being used on him – don’t they want him to defend himself? All the lies that he published in a book and circulated – is that using influence to ask him to defend himself in the law court?
“Are they saying that somebody who was defamed should accept it like that so that people would not accuse him of using influence? There is nothing like using influence or clout here.
“Farotimi is a lawyer, but he was castigating the Supreme Court, describing it as a haven of corruption without any shred of evidence. If he should be dealt with according to the law, is that using influence?
“Are those who are talking about the matter, describing Farotimi as an activist, saying he should be defaming people because he is an activist with the hope of gaining popularity?”