Tope Temokun, one of the lawyers representing human rights activist and legal practitioner, Dele Farotimi, said his client did not send Peter Obi to beg octogenarian legal icon, Afe Babalola, in the alleged defamation suit involving Farotimi and Babalola.
Temokun spoke in an interview on Sunday.
Earlier in December, the police in Ekiti State arrested Farotimi at his Lagos office and bundled him to Ekiti State for prosecution.
The police arraigned the author for publishing a book, ‘Nigeria and its Criminal Justice System’ where he alleged that Afe Babalola corrupted the judiciary and procured a revised judgement in the Supreme Court.
The defendant pleaded not guilty to all the charges levelled against him and has been remanded in prison for two weeks while legal fireworks continue in multiple courts. Farotimi is also facing similar charges in Abuja and Oyo state.
Temokun said he visited Farotimi in prison on Friday and the author told him that he didn’t send Obi to appeal to Babalola or explore an out-of-court settlement to the matter.
He said, “I visited Mr Dele Farotimi in a correctional service in Ado-Ekiti, Ekiti State yesterday afternoon.
“The events of the recent days; the visit of Mr Peter Obi, the (2023) presidential candidate of the Labour Party to Aare Afe Babalola, his visit to Mr Dele Farotimi, created some lack of clarity, people are not so clear about some things, people are not clear about what is going on. It is on the basis of this that I had to visit him yesterday, and we sat together and had a good discussion.
“After Peter Obi left Ekiti, the news that filtered the town to the issue of the conditions for release, the issue of apology, the issue of whether Mr Dele Farotimi is able to do this or that to come out.
“I told him (Farotimi): the reason why I am here is to confirm from you ‘What do you think should be done?’ The visit of Mr Peter Obi to you in person and the subsequent visit to Aare Afe Babalola, what do you know about it? What is your message to Aare Afe Babalola? What is your message to the people outside? What is also your message to me as part of your legal team?
“He (Farotimi) said if anybody who is very familiar with his antecedents, with his principles, with his philosophy overtime should join anybody to believe that in a matter where he had written a book that he had published and that had been in circulation, that if anybody, somebody who has a brain should join others to believe that he has sent anybody to beg anybody, he said he will be so disappointed in that person.
“He told me categorically that even you Tope if you join anybody to believe that I could beg anybody or that I have sent anybody to beg anybody, I will be so disappointed in you.”
Temokun said Farotimi is in high spirits and he is optimistic that he would defeat his challengers in the different courts.
