Sources told SaharaReporters that though Justice Babs O. Kuewumi of the Federal High Court in Ekiti granted Dele Farotimi's bail application on December 9, 2024, his release has been delayed due to bureaucratic hurdles.
Despite being granted bail by both the Federal High Court in Ado-Ekiti, Ekiti State on cybercrime charges brought by the Nigeria Police and a Magistrate Court in Ado-Ekiti on criminal defamation charges, human rights lawyer Dele Farotimi remains in detention at the Ado Ekiti correctional center.
Sources told SaharaReporters that though Justice Babs O. Kuewumi of the Federal High Court in Ekiti granted Dele Farotimi's bail application on December 9, 2024, his release has been delayed due to bureaucratic hurdles.
To finalize his bail, the court needed to verify documents submitted by his sureties with banks and government agencies, which was only completed last Friday.
“However, the judge has yet to sign off on these documents, preventing the prison authorities from releasing Farotimi,” one of the sources said.
Following the Ekiti Magistrate Court's decision to grant Dele Farotimi bail last Friday, December 20, 2024, the magistrate presiding over the case, Abayomi Adeosun, departed after the proceedings without completing the necessary bail formalities, further delaying Farotimi's release.
“As for the Magistrate Court which ruled in favour of Farotimi’s bail, the Magistrate left after the proceedings and hadn’t attended to the bail process,” a source privy to the details of the case said.
Farotimi is facing trial in two courts on charges bordering on the alleged defamation of lawyer Afe Babalola (SAN).
On December 9, the Federal High Court in Ado-Ekiti, Ekiti State granted Farotimi N50 million bail with one surety, following a 12-count charge bordering on cybercrime filed by the Inspector-General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun.
The Federal High Court granted bail to the human rights lawyer, Dele Farotimi, after the police filed charges against him over allegations of cybercrime.
Justice Babs O. Kuewumi ruled on December 9, 2024, that Dele Farotimi should be released on bail, but with some conditions. Specifically, Farotimi needed to provide a surety of N50 million and a guarantor who owns a landed property worth the same amount as the surety.
Justice Kuewumi adjourned the case to January 29, 2025, for further proceedings.
SaharaReporters earlier reported that the Nigerian police had filed fresh charges against Farotimi, before the Federal High Court in Ado-Ekiti, over allegations of cybercrime.
The state police command filed the fresh charges as a plot to frustrate the human rights lawyer's bail application and keep him incarcerated.
On Friday, December 20, 2023, at the hearing of Farotimi’s bail application at the Ekiti State Magistrate Court in Ado-Ekiti, Magistrate Abayomi Adeosun ruled in favour of Farotimi’s bail request.
The magistrate court granted Farotimi N30 million bail. The bail conditions included provision of two responsible sureties and required Farotimi to surrender his passport to the court.
One of the sureties must be a house owner.
Additionally, the defendant was barred from granting any media interview.
Before the bail ruling, Adeosun ruled against Farotimi's defence lawyer, Yinka Olumide-Fusika (SAN), prohibiting him from appearing for his client in the case.
Magistrate Adeosun, delivering the judgment, cited Section 9 of the Magistrate's Courts Law, 2014, as the basis for the ruling, which effectively bans a Senior Advocate from representing Farotimi before the court.
Farotimi was arrested following a petition by lawyer Chief Afe Babalola (SAN).
The charge suit no: MAD/1,476.C/2024, pits the Ekiti State Commissioner of Police as the complainant against Farotimi as the defendant.
Meanwhile, sources further told SaharaReporters that Farotimi’s bail is being processed by leaders of Yoruba social cultural groups who said they have gotten two strong sureties that they plan to submit on Monday.
“However, the magistrate might introduce a bureaucratic system of his own to delay the completion of the bail process as he’d done from the onset of the case,” one of the sources said.