Activist and legal practitioner Dele Farotimi has revealed that he is still weighing his options following his 21-day detention and subsequent legal battles, despite the withdrawal of criminal charges against him.
Speaking on The Duke Rants podcast, which aired on YouTube yesterday, Farotimi was asked what he would say if he encountered Chief Afe Babalola today. He responded, “Like a good Yoruba boy, I’ll give him his salutations. It doesn’t change the fact that I’m still considering my options as regards what to do about what I went through.”
When pressed on what options he was considering, Farotimi stated, “Oh, all the areas of options that are open to a person who was unlawfully kidnapped from his office, hauled before a magistrate for a non-existent crime.”
Farotimi recounted the irregularities surrounding his arrest, stressing that law enforcement officials violated standard legal procedures.
“Policemen crossed five state lines, entered a sixth state—from Ekiti to Ondo, to Osun, to Oyo, to Ogun, and then crossed into Lagos. Somebody has to explain the basis of my incarceration for 21 days,” he said.
Earlier in February, Farotimi disclosed that, despite Afe Babalola withdrawing his petition against him, he still faces four separate lawsuits filed by members of Babalola’s law office across different states.
“My inability to speak to certain aspects of this issue is borne out of the fact that, despite the discontinuation of the criminal proceeding, I still have four suits that I am aware of, in four different states of the federation, filed by members of the same law office, against my person,” he explained.
Farotimi’s legal troubles began after Babalola petitioned the Ekiti State Commissioner of Police, alleging that Farotimi defamed him in his book, Nigeria and Its Criminal Justice System. This led to his arrest and subsequent arraignment before an Ekiti State Magistrate Court for alleged criminal defamation and before the Federal High Court in Ado Ekiti for purported cyberbullying.
On January 27, Babalola announced the withdrawal of the cases following interventions by the Ooni of Ife, Oba Adeyeye Ogunwusi, and other traditional rulers. However, Farotimi’s legal challenges are far from over.
Farotimi strongly defended his book, insisting that it was based on research and personal experience rather than falsehoods.
“I did not sit down in a beer parlour; I was not at an officers’ mess; I was not gossiping. It was not idle, cheap talk. I wrote a book,” he declared. “Let us deal with veracity. Anybody can go and read and then come back and challenge me with the lie that I have told.”
He dismissed claims that the controversy was about his personal reputation, stating that the real issue at stake was Nigeria’s legal system.
“This is not a trial of Dele Farotimi. Let nobody make that error. It is a trial of the legal system that we have built as a collective,” he asserted.
Farotimi also emphasised that his book was not intended as a personal attack on Babalola or any individual but was a critique of systemic corruption within the judiciary.
“Chief Afe Babalola is more than old enough to be my father,”* he said. “I did not set out to destroy the man or to tarnish his image. Nothing personal. I was writing about the institution of the judiciary.”
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