Chidi Odinkalu, a human rights activist and lawyer, has explained that the criminal defamation lawsuit that the Inspector-General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun, filed against Dele Farotimi, a human rights lawyer and social critic, is not a crime under the Ekiti state Criminal Law.
Odinkalu explained this on Saturday in an article published by Law and Society Magazine, titled: ‘In the Matter of Dele Farotimi before the Star Chamber’.
Odinkalu began his argument by narrating a 1983 event detailing how Paul Anyebe, a former judge of the Benue State High Court, unintentionally shot his kleptomaniac son in a bid to scare him from stealing from his bedroom.
The Benue state Attorney-General at the time decided to prosecute Anyebe for attempted murder, a crime which was applicable under the then Benue state penal code.
The Attorney-General also added a charge of illegal possession of firearms, but unlike attempted murder, illegal possession of firearms was a federal offence and could only be charged by the Attorney-General of the Federation.
At the conclusion of the trial, the Benue High Court discharged Anyebe of attempted murder but convicted him of illegal possession of firearms, which was a federal offence, earning him a three years imprisonment sentence.
The Appeal Court reduced Anyebe’s three years sentence to either six months or a fine of hundred naira.
However, when the Supreme Court later decided Anyebe’s appeal, they unanimously decided that a state’s Attorney-General could not prosecute an offence created by an Act of the National Assembly. They nullified the trial and ordered that Anyebe’s N100 be returned to him.
It was on this piece of legal precedence that Odinkalu concluded that the 16-count charge of defamation filed against Dele Farotimi by the Inspector-General of Police cannot be tried under a federal Criminal Code Act under which the charges were filed.
“This is important because the gist of the charges purportedly preferred against Dele Farotimi before the Magistrate in Ekiti is precisely criminal defamation, which is not a crime in Ekiti State,” Odinkalu wrote.
“It seemed quite clear that the charges presented by the police did not disclose a crime known to the laws of Ekiti State nor did they disclose a crime over which a Magistrate in Ekiti State could purport to exercise lawful jurisdiction. Despite the evident absence of jurisdiction on multiple fronts, the Magistrate proceeded with undue haste to order the remand of Dele Farotimi in prison custody for one week until 10 December. The Magistrate probably did not realise that 10 December is International Human Rights Day.”
Odinkalu explained further that the Ekiti Magistrate Court operates by the Ekiti Criminal Law, and that in the law’s entire 492 sections, it does not criminalise libel or criminal defamation.
Leave a Reply