₦airaland Forum

Tinubu, Umahi, and all those around them are mad men. The thoughtless floating of the Naira and the wicked fuel pump price hike, with its attendant increase in transportation costs leading to higher prices for basic food items, goods, and services, is what these mad men are referring to as 'reforms.'

Thunder 🔥 them all

According to Section 39 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999,”every person shall be entitled to freedom of expression including freedom to hold opinions and to receive and impart ideas and information without interference.” To underscore the importance of this right, the constitution further expands the empowerment beyond private discussions by recognizing the use of the media to effect communication across the globe by anyone desirous of consummating the freedom of speech provided by the section. Hence, Section 39(2) explicitly empowers citizens to “own, establish and operate any medium for the dissemination of information, ideas and opinions.”It is perhaps to avoid the misuse of this powerful right, that Nigeria also has a law of defamation which protects citizens from being hurt by reckless statements made by anyone under the guise of freedom of speech.

It can therefore be argued that although the law of defamation derogates from the constitutional provision on freedom of expression, it is certainly one of those laws which Section 45 of the constitution regards as reasonably justifiable in a democratic society. For those who may not fully comprehend what defamation entails, the Nigerian judiciary has since made it easy by defining the concept as an attack on the reputation of a person which lowers one in the estimation of people or causes him/her to be shunned or avoided or exposed to hatred, contempt and ridicule. But then, not every criticism can qualify to be defamatory. A defamatory statement must not only be clearly false, it must also have been made known to not just a few people but to several persons or the world at large. The damaging statement must also have targeted a specific, identifiable person and not just some group of people.

When the above is applied to the ongoing popular case of legal giant, Afe Babalola and human rights activists Dele Farotimi, many can easily see a pointer to a case of defamation especially its stronger dimension of Libel. This is because the alleged offending statement is clearly published in a book written by Dele Farotimi which is in circulation worldwide. The statement also refers specifically to Babalola. What may be difficult to quickly conclude upon at this point is whether the allegations credited to Farotimi are true of Babalola. It is therefore in order that the aggrieved has sued the accused to prove his allegation or be penalized for making reckless weighty allegations. The case looks quite straight forward because Farotimi has not denied that he made such allegation. In the circumstance, it is a case that the judiciary can easily establish guilt. However, the simplicity of the case has become complicated with the involvement of the police.



With the main issues in the case clearly laid, out not many have been able to understand what exactly the police have been or are still investigating to justify the continued detention of Farotimi in police custody. Is it so that the activist does not escape from trial or is he facing punishment for his alleged refusal to present himself early enough? If the truth must be told, the involvement of the police in the case merely reminds many people of the posture of the colonial police used by authorities and the elites to compel strong-headed citizens to fall in line. Police involvement in the case has actually created a bigger court on the subject – the court of public opinion. Indeed, the two people involved in the case are very well known to the public. In the case of Babalola, there is hardly any lawyer that is known to have made a bigger success of his career. On the other hand, no one is likely to believe that Farotimi would timidly dodge police invitation.


From the comments made by the Nigerian Bar Association and some senior lawyers including the fiery Femi Falana, the case has since moved away from that of defamation to the misuse of police power to suppress an underdog. Many people could not have been comfortable with the report that Farotimi’s arrest was done by operatives of the Ekiti State Police Command without prior notification to the Lagos State Police Command or even the higher Zone 2 Command. It is reported that the arrest took the gestapo’ style just as it was done without the convention of logging or booking the case in Lagos thereby leaving Assistant Inspector General of Police (AIG) Zone 2 Command, Adegoke Fayoade and the Lagos State Commissioner of Police Olanrewaju Ishola in the dark until the incident went public. This gives an impression that some actors in the game are more interested in toying with Farotimi’s right to liberty than ensuring justice.

Many questions have since been asked and irrespective of what side anyone chooses to support, Nigerians would no doubt gain from answers to such questions. First, having allegedly invaded Dele Farotimi’s chambers, why was it necessary for the Ekiti operatives to also harass the staff by seizing their phones? Was the choice to use the Ekiti police instead of their colleagues in Lagos where the accused works and lives strategic? Put differently, is it true that Lagos was being avoided because ‘the state of excellence’ has since 2011 decriminalized defamation? Again, how true is the allegation that the arrest of the activist was premature? This question has been asked because DSP Abutu Sunday, the Public Relations Officer of the Ekiti State Command issued a press statement that Farotimi “was in custody and will be arraigned as soon as investigation is concluded.”


It is worthy of note that some persons are also asking questions in favour of Afe Babalola. For example, should Babalola keep quiet and watch his hard-earned reputation destroyed through what looks to him as reckless statements? There is also the issue of the state of the law. Is defamation only a civil wrong? Here, attention is being drawn to the subsisting provisions of the Criminal Code on defamation which establishes clearly that in Nigeria, defamation is also a criminal offence. In addition, it is argued that no amount of compensations can repair the damage which the allegations have done to Babalola’s hitherto impeccable reputation. As we all await the verdict of the court, not much has been said about two aspects of the case. The first is the issue of veracity; who says Farotimi’s allegations cannot be true? Do we know what Farotimi knows about Afe Babalola that could make him think the legal giant does not deserve the high esteem of Nigerians?

The second is the dicey nature of defamation. Indeed, because defamation matters are usually premised on reputation, some defendants could bring up a dirty past that the plaintiff may have forgotten and which could be to the embarrassment of the parties and their children. Here, let’s recall the 1985 libel case instituted against NewsWatch Magazine by the late Chief Frederick Rotimi Alade Williams SAN. NewsWatch hired Chief Gani Fawehinmi who came to court to argue that his clients were justified in their publication insisting that Chief Williams who at the time was arguably the most respected lawyer in Nigeria had no reputation to protect. To illuminate his position, Gani exhumed a 1949 case in which Chief Williams was lampooned in court for a dishonourable conduct of misapplication of his client’s funds. Not much could be said thereafter.

This piece cannot end without reference to the fact that it is one thing for the court to uphold a person’s reputation but quite another thing for the public that a person wishes to please to fixatedly hold-on to a different opinion. Today, some segments of the Nigerian public and other international activists have already taken sides against Babalola. Many people are said to have rushed to purchase every available copy of the ‘forbidden’ book making Amazon to declare the book which initially recorded low sales to have attained a best seller status. Next Tuesday, activists are billed to gather at Kings College London to put pressure on the institution to cancel its Afe Babalola Centre for Transnational Education named after the legal giant for what the group perceives as Babalola’s abuse of power. We can only hope that the court case itself will not end in Pyrrhic victory – one obvious reason why cases of defamation by great men should be left to the courts without involving other exuberant actors.

https://www.vanguardngr.com/2024/12/what-if-farotimis-allegations-are-not-false-by-tonnie-iredia/

Goodnewsforlife:
chinedu wail on

It's your right!!!

You are wailing and gnashing your teeth as well

PressMyButton:
Respect to Jagaban, he knows how to assemble the best brains, as Governor and now as President. Anywhere that's difficult to enter, just leave it for Tinubu, that's where he likes to dismantle into pieces.

After God, na Tinubu 💪 God bless Nigeria.

Best brains that are only good at dishing out 'bolekaja' economic policy prescriptions that have succeeded in wrecking the economy, inflicting untold hardships, and causing starvation among Nigerians.

We all know the motives: to obtain fraudulent and procured black-market court orders against your political adversaries, so you can scream 'obey the court order.'

TossTos:
This has nothing to do with the presidency.
Electoral re-form will happen after 2027 election.

Why after 2027, and not before?

Asgard73:
Believe APC and believe a rat can fly..

Seeing is believing … stories are propaganda for their people

A Goodluck Jonathan on the ballot in 2027 will automatically end all these propaganda

The founder of Afe Babalola University, Ado-Ekiti, ABUAD, Aare Afe Babalola has said that Dele Farotimi, the human rights activist recently remanded by Ekiti Magistrate Court, will be free if he proves the allegations levelled against him.


Recalled that Farotimi had acussed Afe Babalola of corrupting the judiciary in his book titled “Nigeria and its Criminal Justice System”. He was remanded on Wednesday after he was arrested at his chambers by the Ekiti State Police Command.

Addressing journalists on Friday at the Afe Babalola Bar Centre, Ado-Ekiti, Owoseni Ajayi, the lead counsel to Babalola, said Farotimi’s defamatory remarks in his book were targeted to injure the hard-earned reputation of the legal icon, which cannot be remedied by any award of damages.

A case
The former Justice Commissioner in Ekiti, joined by the duo of state’s ex-chairmen of NBA, Olasunkanmi Falade and Lawrence Fasanmi, explained that Farotimi has been inconvenient with Babalola, who won a land dispute case in 2014, where the human rights activist was neither a party nor a counsel in the case.


Babalola had filed a motion for the variation of the judgment of the Supreme Court to correct clerical errors on a certain land portion, which further affected some estates where Farotimi happened to be a lawyer to one of them.

Owoseni emphasised that Farotimi wrote the book not because any injustice was done to him, but because he could not get judgement for his client in court.

The lead counsel wondered why Afe Babalola, who was accused of corrupting the judiciary would lose cases in court and still be fined with over 30 million naira by the same Supreme Court accused of corruption.

He added that Farotimi’s action is an offence punishable under Section 59 of the Criminal Code Act, which emphasises the publication of false news with intent to cause fear and alarm in the public.

His words, “Before I tell you my deductions from all that have happened, allow me to first share with you the events that transpired.

How Farotimi found himself in a defamation suit
… in 2013
“SUIT NO: SC/146/2005: MAJOR MURITALA GBADAMOSI ELETU & ORS V. H.R.H OBA TIJANI AKINLOYE & ORS (2013) 15 NWLR PART 1378

“The Ojomu family sold 254 hectares of land at Osapa Eti-Osa Local Government Lagos to the late Gbadamosi Bamidele Eletu in 1977. The said parcel of land was subsequently acquired by Lagos State Government in 1989.

“The Ojomu family contested the acquisition against Lagos State Government in Suit No: ID/1883/89 wherein the court set aside the acquisition by the Lagos State Government. The Ojomu family then instituted the suit at the High Court of Lagos State, claiming that title to the land had reverted to the Ojomu family despite the earlier sale of the land to late Gbadamosi Bamidele Eletu.

“The Gbadamosi Eletu family lost the case at the High Court and the Court of Appeal before briefing Aare Afe’s Chambers to represent them at the Supreme Court.

“Judgement was delivered by the Supreme Court on 13/7/2013 in favour of the Eletu family wherein the Supreme Court held that:

“Where a party has fully divested himself of all interest in land, no right vests in him to deal with the same property by way of further alienation anymore. He is caught by the maxim, nemo dat quod non habet; that is, he cannot give that which he no longer has.

“In the instant case, it was unfortunate that the respondents claimed title to the whole of their family land compulsorily acquired by the Lagos State Government including the portion earlier sold to the father of the appellants and in which they were in effective possession.

“The claim so made without disclosing the truth and excluding the said portion so sold was clearly made in bad faith and smacked of insincerity. It was very unconscionable and consequently against the principles of equity and good conscience.

“A court of law should not allow itself to be used as an engine for the perpetration of fraud, in whatever guise.

“By this judgement, the Supreme Court recognised the sale of land to the Gbadamosi Eletu family.

‘Error in hectares of land’
“You will recall that 254 hectares were sold to the Gbadamosi Eletu family.

“However, instead of the 254 hectares, Honourable Justice Kumai Bayang AKA’ AHS JSC, who wrote the lead judgement, recorded 10 hectares in error.

“Upon the delivery of the judgement, the Gbadamosi Eletu family surreptitiously employed the services of SB Joseph & Co to enforce the judgement before Afe Babalola Chambers applied for variation of the judgement. This was presumed to be because the Gbadamosi Eletu family wanted avoid paying Aare Afe Babalola’s chambers its professional fees.

“However, in 2014, the Gbadamosi Eletu family came back to Aare Afe Babalola’s Chambers. Immediately, lawyers from Aare Afe Babalola’s chambers filed a motion for variation of the judgement of the Supreme Court pursuant to Order 8 Rule 16 of the Rules of the Supreme Court, which allows application to be brought to correct clerical errors.


“The said motion was heard and ruling delivered on 18/3/2014 granting statutory right of occupancy to the Gbadamosi Eletu family in respect to the entire 254 hectares sold to late Gbadamosi Bamidele Eletu by the Ojomu family.

Enter Farotimi …
“Several residential estates were affected by the judgement of the Supreme Court among which were Pinnock Estate, Beach Resort, NICON Estate, Friends’ Colony Estate and Victory Park Estate etc. Mr. Dele Farotimi was a lawyer to one of these estates.

“The affected estates and individuals immediately filed fresh suits against the Eletu family with the purpose of frustrating the judgement of the Supreme Court. The Eletu family was lured by the affected estates to settle some of the suits behind Afe Babalola’s chambers despite being counsel on record.

“They filed terms of settlement with court without the knowing of Afe Babalola’s chambers.

“The Lagos State Government issued a publication indicating their awareness of the Supreme Court judgement and the need for the State to intervene in order to maintain public peace and order. The Lagos State Government invited the Eletu Family and a compromise was reached so as to avoid a massive dislocation of persons and communities directly affected by the judgement.


“Once Mr. Dele Farotimi can show proof that his assertions in the book are true, then he will be free. Until then, the law allows free speech, but not one that is calculated to injure the good reputation of another.

“All facts are verifiable. I urge Nigerians to verify and find out what the truth is first before picking a side”.

https://www.vanguardngr.com/2024/12/farotimill-be-free-if-afe-babalola/

Clout chasing

Thousands and thousands of ladies are being ordained as reverend sisters, but men aren't bothered by it.

It has been said and proven that Tinubu's urchinstons, BATerians, and paid agents are the most unreasonable, senseless set of homo sapiens to have ever emerged on the surface of the Earth

Okortor:
History too will never forget the brutal cold blood murder committed against the gallant soldier's and officer's of the Nigerian Army by Okuama communities........

Of course, it's well documented in history

garykoeman:
South south don't need ur fake love.

You are irredeemable

helinues:
Okay.

Tell NL'S which rules precisely from 1-22 that this thread break

Let's discuss logically without attaching any form of emotions.

Could you?

You don't creat logical threads and comments

History will never forget the genocide committed against the good people of Okuama, Delta State, and the South-South at large by the Tinubu government.

Nackzy:
They're scared

They are so scared and wish it would never happen because if Goodluck Jonathan is on the ballot in 2027, it will be game over for Tinubu even before the first ballot is cast.

There won't be any comparison.

What are you comparing?
Is it light vs. darkness?
A PhD holder vs. a certificate forger?
An era of economic growth, prosperity, and boom vs. an era of economic stagnation and retrogression?

The support will be massive and overwhelming

In fact, Tinubu will not garner up to 500,000 votes, even if his wife is the INEC chairman.

MyVILLAGEpeople:
Avenue to siphon funds

Fact

Wike will become nothing if he loses his job

These are not check points rather extortion points

Ritchiee:
Why don't you go back to 2015 to enjoy your dollar at 200?
Go back nah.

You are happy your drug lord wrecked the economy

yarimo:
The bitter ones won't be happy very unfortunate human beings

You must be a very Bltter individual

helinues:
This one stopped being one of the reasonable Igbo because of tax reform bill



shame oo

Shame on you too

I am not sure you have ever paid tax

Na Ogun Owo mi da' market royalties you dey collect on a daily

helinues:
Stop living uninspiring life

Is that how much you are disgusted with yourself?

Una hardship might not have anywhere to go as you lots have refused to be useful to your own self

You are obviously describing yourself

Christistruth02:
We were surprised to learn that Doherty was indigene of Ilaro in Ogun State

Obidients were carrying propaganda and insulting SW people over him was if Doherty was
from Lagos Island or indigene of Lagos

We must thank Ilaro people for updating everyone

Is Tinubu an indigene of Lagos