Despite the withdrawal of criminal charges against him, activist and lawyer Dele Farotimi has revealed that he is still weighing his legal options regarding his 21-day incarceration and the series of legal battles he has endured.

Speaking on The Duke Rants podcast, Farotimi detailed the irregularities surrounding his arrest and highlighted the ongoing civil lawsuits filed against him.

Farotimi’s legal troubles stemmed from a petition filed by Chief Afe Babalola, alleging defamation in Farotimi’s book, “Nigeria and Its Criminal Justice System.” The petition led to his arrest and subsequent arraignment before an Ekiti State Magistrate Court for alleged criminal defamation and the Federal High Court in Ado Ekiti for alleged cyber-bullying.

While Babalola eventually withdrew the criminal charges following interventions by traditional rulers in Yorubaland, Farotimi stressed that his legal challenges are far from over.

“My inability to speak to certain aspects of this issue is borne out of the fact that, despite the discontinuation of the criminal proceeding, I still have four suits that I am aware of, in four different states of the federation, filed by members of the same law office, against my person,” he stated.

In the podcast interview, Farotimi recounted the circumstances of his arrest, asserting that law enforcement officials violated standard legal procedures. “Policemen crossed five state lines, entered a sixth state — from Ekiti to Ondo, to Osun, to Oyo, to Ogun, and then crossed into Lagos. Somebody has to explain the basis of my incarceration for 21 days,” he said.

When asked about his potential reaction to meeting Chief Afe Babalola, Farotimi stated, “Like a good Yoruba boy, I’ll give him his salutations. It doesn’t change the fact that I’m still considering my options as regards what to do about what I went through.”

He further elaborated that his options were “all the areas of options that are open to a person who was unlawfully kidnapped from his office, hauled before a magistrate for a non-existent crime.”

Farotimi strongly defended his book, insisting that it was based on research and personal experience, not falsehoods. “I did not sit down in a beer parlour; I was not at an officers’ mess; I was not gossiping. It was not idle, cheap talk. I wrote a book,” he declared. “Let us deal with veracity. Anybody can go and read and then come back and challenge me with the lie that I have told.”

He dismissed claims that the controversy was about his personal reputation, stating that the real issue at stake was Nigeria’s legal system.

“This is not a trial of Dele Farotimi. Let nobody make that error. It is a trial of the legal system that we have built as a collective,” he asserted.

Farotimi also stressed that his book was not intended as a personal attack on Babalola or any individual but was a critique of systemic corruption within the judiciary.

“Chief Afe Babalola is more than old enough to be my father,” he said. “I did not set out to destroy the man or to tarnish his image. Nothing personal. I was writing about the institution of the judiciary.” (The Guardian)