Afe Babalola’s law firm seeks Farotimi’s disbarment

The law firm of top lawyer Afe Babalola has urged the Legal Practitioners Disciplinary Committee (LPDC) to disbar lawyer and activist Dele Farotimi, over his controversial book, titled, ‘Nigeria and its criminal justice system.’

Mr Farotimi’s book, a freewheeling criticism of Mr Babalola, his law firm and its lawyers as well as the entire Nigerian justice system, has prompted criminal and civil cases against him in different courts last week.

Afe Babalola & Co.’s 90-page petition dated 6 December was addressed to the LPDC, the regulatory body in charge of disciplining lawyers in line with the Legal Practitioners Act and the Rules of Professional Conduct for lawyers.

Guardian Newspaper reported that, in the petition, the law firm said Mr Farotimi violated provisions of the rules governing the professional conduct of lawyers.

It said that he “engaged in conduct which is unbecoming of a legal practitioner by making false accusations against the Supreme Court and the legal profession.”

The petition also stated that Mr Farotimi engaged in a “conduct that he believes to be unlawful by bribing judicial officers and having unlawful access to a judicial officer.”

It also accused Mr Farotimi of making defamatory remarks about the Nigerian justice system and its judicial officers.

“Treated his fellow lawyers without respect, fairness, consideration and dignity, allowing ill feeling between opposing clients to influence his conduct and demeanour by distorting the facts of a case in the cause of his practice as a legal practitioner,” a part of the petition stated.

The law firm also accused him of joining his clients in committing misconduct and breaching the law, engaging in illegal activities and disrespecting a judicial officer.

The petition said he also treated the courts, particularly the Supreme Court, “without respect, dignity and honour by using uncouth, unprofessional, undignified and offensive language against the Supreme Court and the justices of the Supreme Court.”

The petition accused Mr Farotimi of indicating that “he discussed a pending case with a judge trying the case in the absence of an opposing lawyer.”

“The contravention of these rules by the Respondent (Farotimi) prompted this petition to protect the dignity of the legal profession, the dignity of the court as the temple of justice and to uphold the standards of the legal profession,” the petition added.

The book, Farotimi’s legal challenges

Mr Babalola, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) and founder of Afe Babalola University Ado-Ekiti (ABUAD), had petitioned the police in Ekiti State accusing Mr Farotimi of defaming him in his book.

Mr Babalola had cited 31 excerpts from the book, including one that accused him of corrupting the Supreme Court in the service of his clients.

Acting on Mr Babalola’s petition, the police have charged Mr Farotimi with criminal defamation at a chief magistrate’s court and with cybercrime at the Federal High Court, both in Ado-Ekiti.

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The Federal High Court judge, Babs Kuewumi, granted bail to Mr Farotimi in the sum of N50 million and adjourned the trial till 29 January 2025.

But the chief magistrate’s court fixed 20 December to rule on Mr Farotimi’s bail application.

In addition to the criminal cases, a lawyer from Mr Babalola’s firm, Kehinde Ogunwumiju, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, has also sued Mr Farotimi for N500 million in a civil libel case at the FCT High Court in Abuja.

Mr Ogunwumiju said Mr Farotimi libelously accused the law firm of “compromising the integrity of the Supreme Court,” scheming with “crooked lawyers and incompetent justices,” and “doctoring” a Supreme Court judgement.

He denied all the allegations.

On Wednesday, the court ordered the seizure of physical copies of the book wherever it might be found.