Embattled lawyer and human rights activist, Dele Farotimi, has been granted a N50 million bail by the Federal High Court in Ado-Ekiti, Ekiti State.
The presiding judge, Justice Babs Kuewumi, who granted the bail on Monday, disagreed with the prosecutor, Samson Osubu, who argued for the court not to grant bail to the defendant as moved by his counsel.
Justice Kuewumi in his ruling granted the defendant a N50 million bail in like sum with a surety resident in Ekiti.
The court also ordered that the defendant must submit his international passport to the court and adjourned the case till January 29, 2025, for commencement of hearing.
Farotimi was remanded in prison custody on Wednesday, December 7, 20204, by the Ado-Ekiti Magistrate Court following his arrest on 16 counts of criminal defamation.
His trial started following allegations made against Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Aare Afe Babalola, in the lawyer’s recently published book, titled, ‘Nigeria and Its Criminal Justice System.’
In a petition addressed to the Ekiti State Commissioner of Police, Adeniran Akinwale; Babalola said his law firm discovered Farotimi’s book accusing him from a Supreme Court judgment involving a land dispute that spanned over two decades.
Babalola said the book accused him of “corrupting the Supreme Court from ages past and had led it to commit the most egregious acts of evil and wanting injustice.”
