Dele Farotimi, lawyer and human rights activist, has been remanded in prison custody 24 hours after police operatives abducted him in Lagos and forcibly took him to Ekiti over defamation petition filed by strongman Afe Babalola.

Mr Farotimi was abducted from his office in Lagos on Tuesday and bundled to Ekiti, where Mr Babalola resides, a development that has sparked widespread criticism.

Omoyele Sowore, publisher of SaharaReporters, announced the remand Mr Farotimi on Wednesday. 

He said the case was adjourned until December 10.

“The Nigerian justice system is whack, as expected @DeleFarotimi has been hurriedly prosecuted and sent to prison after being denied bail by a judge in Ado Ekiti pre-arranged to do the same,” Mr Sowore stated on X.

Berating the police, Mr Babalola and the judiciary, Mr Sowore said, “The @policeng, Chief Afe Babalola, SAN, and the judicial officers had it all planned out even before they sent the goons from Ekiti state command RRS (formerly SARS) to abduct him.”

This comes as Nigerians criticise Mr Babalola for orchestrating the arrest of Mr Farotimi over defamation, which is not a criminal case.

Before his arrest on Tuesday, Mr Farotimi in a statement had raised the alarm that Mr Babalola would use the police to hound and have tried in Ekiti, where the legal icon has influence over the judicial system.

Meanwhile, Nigerian lawyers have condemned the arrest.

“The distance from Lagos to Ekiti State is more than 7 hours.There is no airport in Ekiti. That is the horrendous journey that the @PoliceNG is embarking on because of alleged case of defamation of character. Dele Farotimi wrote about the rot in the Nigerian Criminal Justice System, and he is experiencing it again in real time,” Inibehe Effiong, a lawyer, said on X.

Deji Adeyanju, activist and lawyer, said, “Police kidnapped a lawyer from Lagos & drove him all the way to Ekiti over a defamation issue & you all wonder why Nigeria is cursed. And this petition was done by a sage in the legal profession, our very own Baba Afe Babalola. May we not descend this low in old age. Shame!”