Farotimi
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Breaking: Police arraign Dele Farotimiin Ekiti, Afenifere kicks
Human rights lawyer and activist, Dele Farotimi, was on Wednesday arraigned before an Ekiti State Magistrate Court.
The activist was on Tuesday arrested in Lagos by operatives of the Ekiti State Police Command.
However, he was brought to the court at about 10:25am.
Farotimi is facing a 16-court charge of defamation of character against a legal luminary and founder of Afe Babalola University, Aare Afe Babalola SAN.
He allegedly defamed the character of Babalola in his recent book, titled: ‘Nigeria and Its Criminal Justice System’.
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Meanwhile, the apex pan Yoruba group, Afenifere, has condemned what they described as “abduction” of Farotimi.
In a statement issued by Oba Oladipo Olaitan and Prince Justice Faloye, its Deputy Leader and National Publicity Secretary, respectively, the group warned against anti-democratic tendencies.
“Afenifere condemns this act of the Nigerian Police as illegal, crude, uncivilised and most unacceptable in a country that lays claims to democratic practices,” the statement read in part.
“Dele Farotimi is a known critic of government, an anti-corruption crusader in the judiciary and advocate of equity and true federalism and should not be subjected to terror under the guise of interrogation for nebulous allegations by the security forces and other agencies of government.”
It accused security operatives of a it to detain the activist longer than necessary.
“There are rumours that the police and its sponsors are planning to use the instrumentality and the technicality of the law to detain and remand him in prison for 30 or more days,” the statement alleged.
“Afenifere once again implores all believers in democracy and civil rights to rise against this habitual crude and uncivilised style of our law enforcement officers which are not quite dissimilar from those of criminal gangs with no regard for the rights of citizens.”
