Tope Temokun, the lawyer for human rights advocate Dele Farotimi, has denied a claim that his client sent former presidential candidate Peter Obi to seek intervention from the elderly legal expert, Afe Babalola, in a defamation lawsuit.
Temokun provided clarification on this matter during a Sunday appearance on “Inside Sources with Laolu Akande,” a socio-political show aired on Channels Television.
In early December, police in Ekiti State apprehended Farotimi at his workplace in Lagos and transferred him to Ekiti State for legal proceedings.
The charges against him originate from his publication, “Nigeria and its Criminal Justice System,” which alleged that Afe Babalola engaged in judicial corruption and tampered with a Supreme Court ruling.
Farotimi denied all accusations and is presently in prison for a fortnight while legal processes continue.
He is also subject to connected charges in Abuja and Oyo State.
Temokun, who visited Farotimi in prison on Friday, said the activist denied sending Peter Obi to seek an out-of-court settlement with Babalola.
Temokun added that Farotimi remains in high spirits and is optimistic about overcoming the legal challenges he currently faces in court.
He stated: “I visited Mr. Dele Farotimi in a correctional service in Ado-Ekiti, Ekiti State yesterday afternoon.
“The events of the recent days; the visit of Mr. Peter Obi, the (2023) presidential candidate of the Labour Party, to Aare Afe Babalola, his visit to Mr. Dele Farotimi, created some lack of clarity.
“People are not so clear about some things, people are not clear about what is going on. It is on the basis of this that I had to visit him yesterday, and we sat together and had a good discussion.
“After Peter Obi left Ekiti, the news that filtered the town to the issue of the conditions for release, the issue of apology, the issue of whether Mr. Dele Farotimi is able to do this or that to come out.
“I told him (Farotimi): the reason why I am here is to confirm from you, ‘What do you think should be done?’ The visit of Mr. Peter Obi to you in person and the subsequent visit to Aare Afe Babalola, what do you know about it? What is your message to Aare Afe Babalola? What is your message to the people outside? What is also your message to me as part of your legal team?
“He (Farotimi) said if anybody who is very familiar with his antecedents, with his principles, with his philosophy over time should join anybody to believe that in a matter where he had written a book that he had published and that had been in circulation, that if anybody, somebody who has a brain should join others to believe that he has sent anybody to beg anybody, he said he will be so disappointed in that person.
“He told me categorically that even you, Tope, if you join anybody to believe that I could beg anybody or that I have sent anybody to beg anybody, I will be so disappointed in you.”
