Popular human rights activist, Dele Farotimi has revealed he still faces four separate cases in different states as the stand-off with legal luminary Aare Afe Babalola continues.

Farotimi made this known in an exclusive interview on Toyin Falola Interviews on Sunday, February 16.

Recall the duo dominated the news cycle early this year after Babalola petitioned the police commissioner in Ekiti State following the release of the book ‘Nigeria and its Criminal Justice System'.

According to Babalola, Farotimi defamed him in the book and he was subsequently arraigned before two courts in Ekiti.

The Founder of Afe Babalola University, Ado Ekiti, Aare Afe Babalola (SAN), on January 27, however, agreed to withdraw the cases instituted against Farotimi citing the intervention of the Ooni of Ife, Oba Adeyeye Ogunwusi, and other top traditional rulers.

But featuring on Sunday’s conversation, with the theme: “Politics, Law and Society,” Farotimi disclosed that while the police had withdrawn criminal charges against him following Babalola’s petition withdrawal, he still faced four civil suits across different states, all filed by members of Babalola’s law office.

“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 revealed.

Farotimi emphasised that his book was not written in a moment of idle talk or baseless accusations but rather a well-researched work documenting his experiences and observations about the Nigerian judicial system.

“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.”

Dismissing claims that the controversy surrounding his book is a personal battle, Farotimi insisted that what is on trial is not his reputation, but the Nigerian legal system itself.

“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.

He reaffirmed that his controversial book, ‘Nigeria and Its Criminal Justice System’, is not an attack on individuals, particularly legal luminary Chief Afe Babalola, but rather a critique of systemic corruption within the judiciary.

He stressed that his work was written in pursuit of justice, not personal vendettas.

“Chief Afe Babalola is more than old enough to be my father,” Farotimi 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.”

Speaking, Farotimi maintained that his critique aimed at institutional failings rather than individuals.

“Multiple names were mentioned in the book, and offices were mentioned. I did not set out to libel anybody,” he explained. “I simply told the truth of what I saw. All I did was write a book. Maybe we have become too accustomed to lies and allergic to truth, to the point where telling the truth has become a sin.”