Abuja Court Has Ordered Police, DSS To Seize Farotimi’s Controversial Book From Online, Bookstores

On Wednesday, Justice Peter Kekemeke of the Federal High Court in Abuja ordered multiple security agencies in the country to seize Dele Farotimi’s Nigeria and Its Criminal Justice System from bookstores. The ruling was delivered following an ex parte application by Kehinde Ogunwumiju, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) and the managing partner of the Afe Babalola’s Emmanuel Chambers.

Babalola, a senior lawyer, orchestrated Farotimi’s arrest in Lagos State by using policemen from Ekiti State on December 2. Following this, demands for his book surged in major bookstores and it became a bestseller on the Amazon e-commerce store. According to Channels Television, the Nigeria Police Force, the State Security Service and the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps are to inform the court of their compliance with the order within 72 hours of receiving the enrollment of order. Some of the bookstores listed in the application were Amazon Online Bookstore, Dele Farotimi Publishers, Jazzhole Lagos Bookstore, Rovingheights Bookstore, Booksellers Bookstore, Quintessence Lagos Bookstore, Glendora Bookshop and Patabah Books Limited.

Rovingheights Bookstore told FIJ on Wednesday that the book was out of stock. “Good afternoon. It’s out of stock,” the bookstore replied to an order request on WhatsApp. Ogunwumiju’s prayers before the court read, “An order of interlocutory injunction restraining the Defendant/Respondent, whether acting by himself, his staff, employees, servants, privies, representatives, agents, publishers, distributors, sellers, re-publishers, re- sellers, or any other person howsoever described including Amazon Online Bookstore, Rovingheights Bookstore, Booksellers Bookstore, Jazzhole Lagos Bookstore, Glendora Bookshop, Quintessence Lagos Bookstore and Patabah Books Limited from further publishing, selling, circulating, advertising, or distributing the physical/hard/digital/soft copies of the book authored by the Defendant/Respondent titled: ‘Nigeria and Its Criminal Justice System’, online, electronically, physically or by any other means including social media, pending the hearing and determination of the substantive suit.

“An order of interlocutory injunction directing the seizure of all physical copies of the book authored by the Defendant/Respondent titled: ‘Nigeria and Its Criminal Justice System’, wherever they may be found including at Dele Farotimi Publishers, Rovingheights Bookstore, Booksellers Bookstore, Jazzhole Lagos Bookstore, Glendora Bookshop, Quintessence Lagos Bookstore and Patabah Books Limited worldwide by the Nigerian Police Force, State Security Service, Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corp and all other security agencies pending the hearing and determination of the motion on notice for interlocutory injunction dated and filed on the 6th day of December 2024.”

Farotimi is facing multiple criminal and civil cases based on the contents of his book accusing Babalola of corrupting some justices of the Supreme Court and building his reputation on corruption. Following Farotimi’s arrest, the police hurriedly arraigned and got him remanded in a prison in Ekiti. Fresh cases against Farotimi by lawyers within Babalola’s camp followed. For instance, Justice Mufutau Adegbola of an Oyo State High Court granted a similar order to restrain the author or any of his agents from further producing the book.

Adebayo Adenipekun, who works with Babalola, initiated the said case via an ex parte application on Monday. The case comes up for hearing on January 7, 2025. Those cases exist independent of the one filed by the Inspector General of Police before a Federal High court in Ekiti on Friday.