Tope Temokun, the lawyer to the detained activist, Dele Farotimi, has dismissed the insinuation in some quarters that Mr Peter Obi, the presidential candidate of the Labour Party in the last election, was sent to beg Afe Babalola on behalf of Farotimi in the ongoing defamation case.
Farotimi, who was arrested and is in detention, is charged with defamation following a petition filed by Babalola.
Expressing optimism that his client would defeat the present challenges, Temokun disclosed that the activist never sent anyone to beg Babalola on his behalf.
“He (Farotimi) said if anybody who is very familiar with his antecedents, with his principles, with his philosophy overtime 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,” he stated.
Babalola’s law firm requested that the Legal Practitioners Disciplinary Committee (LPDC) disbar Farotimi.
The request was made in a 90-page petition dated December 6, 2024, and signed by Ola Faro, a partner in the firm.
Faro disclosed that he wrote the petition in his personal capacity “and for and on behalf of the law firm of Afe Babalola & Co”.