VANGUARD
A lot has been said about the manner Dele Farotimi was arrested and how he has allegedly been unfairly treated. What are the details of this? CCTV footage exist of armed security operatives entering his office and they would appear to have seized the phones of his staff. We cannot quite tell from the footage what prompted their action but one can hazard a guess.
We all know how our security operatives, both military and paramilitary, react to communication devices, especially where they suspect they are being recorded. Many Nigerians have had fateful encounters simply for displaying their mobile phones and similar devices around military or police checkpoints, stations or barracks.
Communication devices are to our security operatives what red flags are to bulls- they set them off wildly. This was, perhaps, what happened. Otherwise there could hardly be any other explanation for this. Which is not the same thing as excusing their action. What they did was condemnable in every particular, but it deserves to be put in context. The refusal of many to do this for reasons of obvious bias is why it would seem such heavy weather has been made of the entire process of Farotimi’s arrest, which speaks to broader issues about our police system, including its power of investigation and prosecution. It weighs heavily against the accused in its imputation of guilt rather than the presumption of innocence.
This is a state of affairs we must never tire to oppose even when it concerns those we happen not to support. Otherwise, there was nothing unprecedented about the arrest in our everyday experience of the Nigeria Police except somebody is out to claim for Farotimi the same privilege we accuse the elite of appropriating to themselves unfairly. To state it differently: there is everything right about demanding that Farotimi be treated fairly in accordance with the law, but when that does not happen, as seems to be the case with some details about his arrest, nobody needs make it look as if this was so simply or precisely because it is Farotimi, the David out to grapple with a Goliath in the bar or, even worse, the anti-Bola Tinubu crusader and nemesis of the All Progressives Congress-led government that is bent on crushing him. That smacks a bit of exaggeration.
It is arguable that the apparent recklessness of Farotimi’s allegations was partly to ruffle some respected feathers. It is also reasonable to suspect that his being handcuffed to the court was to clip what his accusers might see as his growing wings. My point, however, is that this could be but need not be the only explanation for the manner of his arrest, which I now proceed to show is not unique.
Kemi Olunloyo, the blogger and self-avowed investigative journalist, was in 2017 jailed for three months at the Port Harcourt Maximum Security Prison for defaming Pastor David Ibiyeomie of the Salvation Ministries. She had alleged in a post published in March of that year that the pastor was in an adulterous affair with Iyabo Ojo, an actress. She was arrested in Ibadan and taken to Port Harcourt (just as Farotimi was arrested in Lagos and transported to Ekiti) where Ibiyeomie is domiciled and has the headquarters of his church.
Four months ago, precisely in August 2024, Dammy Krane, the singer, was arrested for defamation. He had alleged that his former friend and fellow singer, Davido, who is now being portrayed as a staunch critic of government for opening his mouth a tad too widely by putting down his country during an interview in the US, had a hand in the death of their mutual friend, Tagbo Umeike. Arrested in Lagos, Krane was taken to Abuja where he was held in Police detention for six days. About the same time that Dammy Krane and Davido crossed swords, Speed Darlington, another singer/rapper, was arrested for defamation and cyber stalking, same offence as Farotimi’s.
His accuser was Burna Boy, a singer, who felt defamed by Darlington’s allegation/imputation that he was gay. Like Dammy Krane, Darlington was arrested more than once for the same allegation. He was first arrested in Lagos in October and again in Owerri in November. For days after his first arrest, nobody knew his whereabouts. He was initially declared missing before the truth of his incarceration came to light. On both occasions, he was transferred to Abuja where he is presently being held in detention by the IGP’s Intelligence Response Team. We have not mentioned the other case of the internet activist, VeryDarkMan, whose defamation case with Femi Falana and his children is still in court. None of the cases I have highlighted here differs in legal particulars from that of Farotimi.
Is it not remarkable that virtually all the cases mentioned involved people in the entertainment world or others whose persona rests snugly in the virtual space and thrives on popular adulation? Is this indicative of the motive behind such acts of defamation as people make reckless statements in the blind drive for popularity and the mistaken belief that their popularity should shield them from accountability? Portable has been running his mouth wildly, recriminating himself to the extent of admitting to statutory rape of a minor and he is enjoying the attention with no care for the consequences of his defamatory conduct on the victims. Should someone of means who has his time take him on later, then would the two penny human rights activists crawl out of their holes.
It’s about time people are held accountable for their media activities even as the spate of defamation suits are getting people to behave. We saw how the politician-turned activist, Deji Adeyanju, beat a hasty retreat after he received a demand for the retraction of his allegation that Umar Damagun and Senator Samuel Anyanwu, the Acting Chair and Acting Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party respectively served tea and kilishi in the house of Femi Gbajabiamila. He didn’t need much persuasion to know he had to apologise. That’s how fast people are learning hard. We need to test our laws and Farotimi as a trained lawyer should not be in the category of the loose lips around. If LP had won, he like other party leaders would have been in government in a country they despise so much.
These are still early days and Farotimi can remain obstinate, rejecting all attempts at mediation. But when his issue vacates the front pages as they would soon and he is left alone, he may start reconsidering his stand the same way Nnamdi Kanu had to. Or else take on the herculean task of proving the allegations in his book.
