FIJ
On Tuesday, the Police Service Commission (PSC) approved the promotion of Akinwale Kunle Adeniran, the Commissioner of Police in Ekiti State, among 10 others, to the Assistant Inspectors General of Police (AIG) position.
Interestingly, the December 2 arrest of Dele Farotimi, a human rights lawyer, which the Nigerian Bar Association described as “illegal” happened under Akinwale’s watch.
On July 2, Farotimi released a book titled Nigeria and Its Criminal Justice System. Months after the 116-page book’s release, Afe Babalola, a senior lawyer in the Nigerian legal circle, accused Farotimi of defamation.
The human rights lawyer was subsequently arrested in a Gestapo-like manner at his Lagos office by a group of policemen attached to the Ekiti State Police Command, and then transported to Ekiti.
Apart from the defamation charges initially brought against Farotimi at an Ekiti State Magistrate Court by Babalola’s team, Kayode Egbetokun, the Inspector General of Police (IGP), filed 12 additional charges against Farotimi at an Ekiti Federal High Court on December 6.
An Abuja High Court also subsequently ordered multiple security agencies in the country to seize physical copies of Farotimi’s book from all bookstands and stores nationwide.
The court also temporarily restrained Farotimi from “further publishing, selling, circulating, advertising, or distributing the physical/hard/digital/ soft copies of the book online, electronically, physically or by any other means”.
Farotimi’s trial then led to criticism from Nigerians with many calling for a protest to be staged against what they termed “an unlawful arrest”.
While defending Farotimi’s questionable mode of arrest, however, Akinwale said the alleged offences committed by Farotimi included “defamation of character, cyberstalking and other things”. He claimed that the allegations had been “fully established”.
THIS STORY FIRST APPEARED IN FIJ
