By Nafiu Toyin Abdulqadri
Human rights activist Dele Farotimi was recently arrested and taken to Ekiti from Lagos to face charges for allegedly defaming prominent lawyer and elder statesman Afe Babalola. Fasoranti has been remanded in custody until December 10th.
The controversy surrounding Farotimi’s arrest stems from a book he wrote, which includes a foreword detailing his experiences with the Nigerian legal system. In the foreword, Farotimi alleges that Afe Babalola corrupted the Supreme Court to secure a fraudulent judgment in favor of his clients. He also accuses Babalola and others of compromising the integrity of the Supreme Court.
The Foreword:
This is not a biography for I have painstakingly provided glimpses of my early life in an earlier sequel to my first book.
My purpose here is to tell you the story of my sojourn within the Nigerian legal system and to show you how our justice system- the Nigerian justice system is in itself criminal, lending credence to how the criminality of the juthciary is completely reflective of the Nigetian state in its full ramifications and with full evidence of how this rot having become systemic is insidious and reaches to the very top of the juthcial system.
I will tell you the story of the complete and total loss of the capacity, to deliver justice against the backdrop of a case that was decided by the Supreme Court and which records are in the public domain.
I speak specifically of the case of Major Muritala Gbadamosi 8c Ors v. H.R.H Oba Tijani Akinloye & Ors otherwise known as the Gbadamosi-Eletu case.
It is my conternion regarding this case:
1 That Aare Afe Babalola corrupted the Supreme Court to procure a fraudulent judgment in the service of his clients.
2. That the law firm of S. B. Joseph & Co. procured 2 warrant to execute the said judgment by doctoring the original judgment of the Supreme Court
3. That Atilade O, Justice at the time and the Administrative Judge of the Lagos Judicial Division, unlawfully issued a warrant of execution based on the doctored judgment and without the enrolled order of the Supreme Court.
4. That Atilade, J quashed the fraudulently obtained warrant following an application of counsel in protest against same.
5. That Aare Afe Babalola, Olu Daramola, Olu Faro and the law offices of Afe Babalola & Co, (Emmanuel Chambers) compromised the Supreme Court and the remaining semblance of integrity it might have had, when they went back to the Supreme Court and got that court to swim in the sewer of corruption and shameful self-abnegation.
6. That Lawal Pedro SAN, at the material time the Solicitor-General of Lagos State, corruptd himself, abandoned the interests of the State, its citizens and any pretense to decency and became the undiscloud attorney to the Eletu family thus betraying the public trust.
7. That Afe Babalola libelled me and the fact of the libel becarne known to me in his suit against Lawal Pedro SAN.
8. That I sued Afe Babalola SAN for libel and that he leveraged his influence in the justiciary to deny me justice.
9. That Oyekan-Abdullai, J was the instrument of injustice employed to deny me my day in court.
10. That the Nigerian Justice System is criminal and complicit and can therefore not uphold the tenets of true justice nor the dispense thereof to which it is sworn.
The story I intend to tell is wrapped around the above facts and have been carefully espoused to highlight only the facts of the matter. Afterall, of what use is a lawyer without his facts?