Odinkalu asserts that Farotimi is not undergoing a legitimate trial, but rather facing "judicial and legal terrorism".
Professor Chidi Anselm Odinkalu, former Chairman of Nigeria's National Human Rights Commission, has strongly condemned the detention of human rights lawyer Dele Farotimi.
Odinkalu asserts that Farotimi is not undergoing a legitimate trial, but rather facing "judicial and legal terrorism".
During a conversation hosted by Omoyele Sowore on X Space on Thursday, Odinkalu described Farotimi's situation as a "hostage-taking" scenario, where the excuse of legality is being used to perpetuate injustice.
He emphasized the need for Nigerians to stand up against the repression of free speech, starting with Farotimi's case, warning that failure to do so will hinder progress.
Odinkalu also expressed concerns about the conspiracy of silence among lawyers, judges, politicians, and their associates, who he believes are manipulating the court system to avoid accountability.
He commended participants for showing solidarity with Farotimi, stressing that every act of support is crucial in the fight against injustice.
"This is not about Dele," he said, insisting that Dele knows the score.
"It could happen to any of us... It should worry every Nigerian how one person can commander the police force, commander the judiciary, commander the political system, and commander the prison system and determine how long a Nigerian who is a lawyer actually, of considerable seniority can be held behind bars on a crime that does not exist in the state where it is being looked into.
"That should worry every one of us because it says that we don't have a country. So this actually is a fight over whether or not we can be citizens of a country. Fundamentally that is what it is."
He added, "You accused a guy of corruption and then they decided to show that everything he said is valid. So, if Dele had orchestrated and written this as a script, he could not have done much better.
“So what can we do? Where are we? This is not about a story of one man. The story is that our country has been captured by a very narrow cabal who wants to keep us all oppressed using appearances of rule of law, because when a judge who is on big wig as jury and sit down and pronounce it as law that the man who came fourth in an election is first, it becomes rule of law.
"That suppression of rule of law is what we must keep our eye on. A lot of people will tell you, ‘Go and register to vote, I cannot tell anybody in Nigeria to go and register to vote.’
“We must keep our eye on the court system and those who we call judges, Magistrates, Senior Advocate of Nigeria, lawyers, that is where the battle will be fought and won.
“Unless we fight and win that battle, with the lawyers and the judges, and the politicians, their mistresses, girlfriends, children who have conspired to take over our court system in order to avoid the anger of the people who they no longer serve, we will not make any progress.
"We have to understand the fact that we will no longer win elections in the polling units, we will not win elections in the court systems. That delegitimises our democratic process. This is one thing it is fundamentally about and if we are not going to do that to scramble that conspiracy of the capture of the country, all of us will to have to consider exile for ourselves and our children."
The law professor emphasised that Nigeria is a blessed country that has enough resources for all of its citizens, noting that was why while some Nigerians are being exiled, the people running the country are bringing back their children, so that their children will take everything for themselves.
"We have to end that, to end it let us train our thoughts on the judiciary and the law, all the other details can follow up. There so many Nigerians and Dele is one of those who are hostages of the law. Dele is not going through a legal trial; he is going through judicial terrorism and legal terrorism. This is hostage-taking using excuse of legality. We are going to make that case rigorously and vigorously across the board on behalf of Nigerians who are going through it at the moment."