Land Dispute Fallout: Afe Babalola Accuses Farotimi Of Malicious Defamation

Land Dispute Fallout: Afe Babalola Accuses Farotimi Of Malicious Defamation

Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Afe Babalola, has accused human rights lawyer Dele Farotimi of defaming him in his book after Farotimi’s client lost a land dispute case. Babalola expressed concern over the public reactions….READ MORE…

to the matter, urging Farotimi to either apologize or face legal action.

The controversy stems from Farotimi’s book, Nigeria and Its Criminal Justice System, where he alleged that Babalola used corruption to secure a fraudulent judgment from the Supreme Court for his clients. Farotimi was arrested on Monday, December 2, and remanded in custody by the Ado Ekiti Chief Magistrate Court on Wednesday, December 3.

Babalola addressed the media in Ado Ekiti through his legal team, including three former chairmen of the Nigerian Bar Association’s Ekiti branch: Owoseni Ajayi, Lawrence Fasanmi, and Olakanmi Falade. Ajayi, a former Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, emphasized that Farotimi, as a lawyer, should have been aware of the serious consequences of making such allegations against a senior statesman and the judiciary.

The land dispute centers around a sale of 254 hectares of land in Lagos by the Ojomu family to the late Gbadamosi Bamidele Eletu in 1977. The land was later acquired by the state government, but the Ojomu family contested the acquisition in court. The case went through multiple levels of the judiciary, with the Supreme Court ruling in favor of the Eletu family in 2013, recognizing their rightful ownership of the land.

Despite the Supreme Court’s ruling, several estates involved in the case, including Pinnock Estate, Beach Resort, and others, filed suits to contest the judgment. Babalola’s legal team, which had represented the Eletu family, sought to correct clerical errors in the ruling, securing a variation of the judgment in 2014 to clarify the full extent of the land’s ownership.

Babalola’s legal team asserts that Farotimi’s claims in his book, which include accusations of judicial corruption, are false and violate Section 59 of the Criminal Code Act, which prohibits the publication of false news with intent to cause fear or alarm.

Babalola has called for legal redress, warning that the baseless allegations could undermine the integrity of the judiciary and defame his reputation.

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