Farotimi, Babalola and the Public on Defamation
By Elempe Dele
I must confess I never knew Dele Farotimi before the tumultuous 2023 presidential election, and it was during this period he become visible to me. What I noticed about him during that trying period in that our contemporary political history was that he had this reckless approach during interviews he frequently attended on national television stations. He would make very sweeping and slanderous remarks about certain individuals and then challenge them to sue him. In my estimation, I felt he was unrestrained especially as a lawyer who ought to know the effect and weight of his words under the law.
Chief Afe Babalola, SAN, petitioned the police in Ekiti State against Dele Farotimi for allegedly defaming him. Based on the petition from the legal luminary, Farotimi was arrested.
Under our constitution, the grundnorm, what is termed defamation is crystal clear. Defamation is the act of passing false comments or statements about an individual that result in damage to the person’s reputation. Defamation under the Criminal Code Act is defined as “defamatory matter likely to injure the reputation of any person by exposing him to hatred, contempt, or ridicule, or likely to damage any person in his profession or trade by any injury to his reputation.” While under the Penal Code Law, “whoever, by words either spoken or reproduced by mechanical means or intended to be read by signs or by visible representations makes or publishes any imputation concerning any person, intending to harm or knowing or having reason to believe that such imputation will harm the reputation of such person, is said to defame that person.”
The legislation operational in the southern part of Nigeria contains both state and federal offences and it is contained in a single document (the Criminal Code Act); while the Penal Code is operational in the northern part of Nigeria and it is not contained in a single document, rather in two separate documents. One is the “Penal Code Law” (this is for state offences like stealing, rape, arson, and murder), and the other is the “Penal Code (Northern States) Federal Provisions Act (No. 25 of 1960)” (this is for federal offences, like treason, sedition, and customs offences).
The Criminal Code Act and the Penal Code Law are the laws that provide for the offence of defamation.(Tamaraemi, 2024)
So it is based on the strength of the Criminal Code Act Chief Babalola petitioned the police and the police acted according ti expectations. Dele Farotimi was not abducted nor kidnapped. It must be known that Dele Farotimi, a lawyer, is not unaware of the likely consequences of his actions, and as a matter of fact, Dele Farotimi is not a prisoner of conscience as I can see ‘Free Dele Farotimi’ renting the social media space. Dele Farotimi has been accused of allegedly contravening the law.
Dele Farotimi will not be freed or released from bondage because Peter Obi, Sowore or you and I said so; Dele Farotimi will have his day in court to substantiate his claims against Chief Babalola who felt his reputation spanning decades was injured. Dele Farotimi will have ample time in a court of competent jurisdiction to defend himself against the allegations against him contained in the petition.
The consequence of criminal defamation by the provision of section 375 of the Criminal Code Act is misdemeanor and is liable to imprisonment for one year; and any person who publishes any defamatory matter knowing it to be false, is liable to imprisonment for two years. A defendant who publishes a defamatory matter with the intent to extort is guilty of a felony and is liable to imprisonment for seven years.
I am very certain Dele Farotimi, who is very brazen in his allegations, and particularly this, will be preparing his defense as prison notes along the lines of justification(that his allegations are for public interests, and are true) fair comment(that his allegations were expressed in good faith based on the facts truly expressed) and privilege(absolute or conditional) Whichever defense Dele Farotimi will be putting out, there must be fact in his allegations against Chief Babalola which were both in written form and in a video that has gone viral.
