Aare Afe Babalola (SAN) might have given truce conditions to Dele Farotimi in the ongoing criminal defamation matter.
Recall that the police are prosecuting Farotimi, a Lagos lawyer in Ado-Ekiti, following a petition by Chief Babalola, who alleged criminal defamation of his character in the book: Nigeria and its Criminal Justice System, written and published by Farotimi.
Farotimi is before a Magistrate’s court and the Federal High Court both in Ado Ekiti for criminal defamation and cybercrime respectively.
He has been remanded in Ado-Ekiti Correctional Center since last week.
Presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP) in the 2023 election Peter Obi, accompanied by the Southwest Coordinator of his campaign in that election, Mr. Sola Ebiseni, visited Chief Babalola in Ado-Ekiti on Monday over Farotimi’s ordeal. The duo also visited Farotimi where he is kept in Ado-Ekiti prison.
Sources said yesterday that during the two-hour meeting between Obi and Chief Babalola, the legal giant reportedly gave the conditions.
The conditions are for Farotimi to retract his not guilty plea and thereafter publish the rebuttal in major newspapers.
“Baba Afe told Obi that he (Babalola) has nothing to gain by Farotimi’s incarceration. If he says the allegations are false and offers an apology in some newspapers, then, the case can be withdrawn,” a source said.
It was gathered that before Obi’s visit, former President Olusegun Obasanjo and Catholic Bishop of Sokoto Diocese Matthew Hassan Kukah had reached out to Chief Babalola on the issue.
