On Thursday, Comrade Timi Frank, the former Deputy National Publicity Secretary of the All Progressives Congress (APC), warned the Federal and Ekiti State Governments that they had 48 hours to free human rights attorney Dr. Dele Farotimi from incarceration or face widespread demonstrations.
Frank, who made this appeal in a statement in response to Farotimi’s remand, urged Nigerians to take over all police stations and formations in the nation if the government does not unconstitutionally free the rights activist within the allotted time frame starting from the moment of his remand.
On Wednesday, the Ado Ekiti Division of the Ekiti State Chief Magistrates Court ordered Farotimi to be remanded to the state’s penitentiary facility.
After publishing his book “Nigeria and its Criminal Justice System,” in which he made several accusations, including that Nigerian Senior Advocate Afe Babalola had compromised the Supreme Court, Farotimi was charged with defamation of character.
But according to Frank, Farotimi’s arrest and remand are not solely based on the purported defamation defense.
He claimed that Farotimi was being intimidated and harassed by the Federal Government through the remand because he frequently criticized the anti-people policies of President Bola Tinubu’s administration.
At the same time, he denounced the judiciary and police for being the repressive arm of the current government, and he denounced the arrest and remand.
Since Farotimi is a man who upholds and believes in the rule of law, he doesn’t deserve his current troubles, in his opinion.
“Farotimi is a man of principle, a man of truth, and a champion of democracy.” Instead of arresting him and then remanding him on suspicion of an offense that is subject to bail under Nigerian law, they should have invited him in a civil manner and he should have accepted their invitation if they felt he had done anything improper.
This makes it quite evident that the reason they are subjecting Farotimi to this extremely humiliating experience is not due to the petition filed by Afe Babalola. Farotimi is known to be an outspoken critic of the administration, thus there is more to the arrest.
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“It is Farotimi today, it may be another Nigerian tomorrow,” said Frank, ambassador to East Africa and the Middle East for the United Liberation Movement for West Papua (ULMWP), who urged Nigerians to join the fight to free Farotimi from remand and to prevent the government from using state institutions to repress and silence Nigerians who speak out against their oppressive and hardship-inducing policies.
Martin Niemöller, a German pastor, was cited by him as saying: “They first came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a socialist.” Then they came for the trade unionists, and since I wasn’t one, I didn’t say anything. I remained silent since I was not a Jew when they came for the Jews.
When they finally arrived to take me, nobody was left to speak on my behalf.
