A Federal High Court, sitting in Ado-Ekiti, Ekiti state capital has granted bail to Human rights activist and lawyer, Dele Farotimi in a cybercrime suit instituted against him by the Inspector General of Police.
Farotimi was last week arraigned before a Magistrate court in Ado-Ekiti, over the petition written against him by legal icon, Aare Afe Babalola, SAN, over alleged defamation in his book titled, ‘Nigeria and Its Criminal Judicial System’
The IGP however filed a fresh suit marked FHC/AD/CR/104/2024 against Farotimi before the Federal High Court over a 12-count charge bordering on cybercrime.
During the hearing on Monday, the presiding judge, Justice Babs Kuewumi disagreed with the prosecutor, Samson Osubu who argued for the court not to grant bail to the defendant as moved by his counsel.
Justice Kuewumi in his ruling, granted the defendant a N50 million bail in like sum with a surety resident in Ekiti.
The court also ordered that the defendant must submit his international passport to the court and adjourned the case till January 29, 2025, for commencement of hearing.
Speaking with newsmen, one of the counsels to Farotimi, Ralph Nwoke commended the court for granting Farotimi bail, adding that the team would do everything possible to perfect the bail conditions towards ensuring his release.
Nwoke, who is the managing partner DL Legal revealed that the prosecuting team served the defence counsel with a fresh suit different from the one earlier filed on Friday against Farotimi.
According to him, ” We got the hint this morning(Monday) that they were bringing Dele Farotimi to the court this morning and we are already in the Ado-Ekiti, we immediately rushed down to the court.
“They served us a new charge in court that was filed this morning, substituting the one that was filed on Friday last week.
“Our team moved an oral bail application and he was granted bail.
“He was granted a bail of N50 million and surety in like sum, which must be resident in Ekiti state with a landed property, including the travel passport of the defendant should be submitted at the court.
” Our client has been taken to the custodian center , while we are working on perfecting these conditions to get him out hopefully any moment from now.”
When asked about the Impact of the suit as it relates to the one at the Magistrate Court, the lawyer said, “I don’t expect the Magistrate court matter to go on, this should override it, because this is a higher court.
” Let’s see what the prosecution team will do but we will be here to do our job.”