By Straightnews
Amazon, Global tech and retail giant, has listed a Nigerian-themed book as its number one bestseller in global politics after its author was arrested on the orders of a controversial lawyer and businessman.
Dele Farotimi’s Nigeria and Its Criminal Justice System surged to the first position on Amazon Thursday morning, after trending starting Wednesday afternoon.
The demand for Mr Farotimi’s on global platforms like Amazon followed a similar rush to bookstores across Nigeria, where citizens were curious to learn its content.
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The global interest followed Mr Farotimi’s arrest on the orders of Afe Babalola, a 93-year-old senior Nigerian lawyer whose corruption allegations have long dogged.
It ranked ahead of War, a non-fiction book by journalist Bob Woodward, and Hilary Clinton’s Something Lost, Something Gained.
Nigerian-themed rarely make Amazon’s bestselling chart, and Mr Farotimi’s book beat globally-acclaimed works like Why Nations Fail.
Mr Farotimi, a retired lawyer based in Lagos, used the book to criticise corruption in the Nigerian judiciary and specifically namechecked Mr Babalola as one of the top offenders.
Mr Babalola “compromised the Supreme Court and the remaining semblance of integrity it might have had,” Mr Farotimi wrote while narrating a case in which the nonagenarian lawyer approached “the Supreme Court and got that court to swim in the sewer of corruption and shameful self-abnegation.”
The book, published in July 2024, buttressed a longstanding public suspicion that Mr Babalola was among those befouling the Nigerian judicial by corrupting judges with cash and material bribes to influence judges from lower courts to the Supreme Court.
The book saw low sales following its publication until Mr Farotimi was seized by armed policemen in Lagos on Tuesday morning and subsequently whisked to Ado Ekiti, about 300 kilometres northeast of the nation’s commercial capital, where Mr Babalola is best known as the largest employer of labour.
Following his initial arraignment on Wednesday morning in Ekiti, a judge remanded Mr Farotimi in custody pending a bail hearing on December 10.
The police said the book “was likely to cause fear and alarm to the public or disturb the public peace,” according to the charge sheet seen by The Gazette.
Mr Babalola has long faced public criticism as one of the senior lawyers notorious for their ability to influence court judgements across the country, eroding public trust in the Nigerian judiciary.
He has often denied the allegations, but some judges have lamented how some lawyers were known for their ability to undermine the judicial system by buying judgements. He was not specifically mentioned in the allegations by retired Justice Dattijo Muhammad.
The detention has sparked public outrage, with Nigerians demanding Mr Farotimi’s release while raining invective against Mr Babalola, who is widely adjudged the most influential private citizen in Ekiti State.
Police file fresh charges against Farotimi
Meanwhile, the police on Friday slammed fresh counts of criminal defamation against activist Dele Farotimi, accusing him of holding a press conference online in which he detailed a budding plot to arrest him.
The police said the December 2, 2024, press briefing on YouTube constituted an attempt to bully and defame Afe Babalola, a nonagenarian lawyer on whose behest Mr Farotimi was arrested on Tuesday and remanded in prison following an initial arrangement Wednesday.
The charges marked the latest escalation in an already fraught case that has fuelled division within legal circles across the country and appeared to show Mr Babalola was unwilling to backpedalled on a turn that many saw as potentially damaging to his legacy, especially for its brazen assault on free speech.
Mr Farotimi had used the press conference to detail how Mr Babalola was coming after him over his book that hit stores in July 2024, in which he narrated how Mr Babalola, a senior lawyer of immense political and business influence, perfected the art of judicial banditry that spanned decades.
Mr Babalola denied all allegations of bribing judges to procure favourable judgements, as well as all charges of corruption against his person or establishments.
But his decision to involve the police, who have a history of being used by the powerful against everyday citizens, often after financial or material inducement, was what elicited the most scorn from Nigerians, who saw the 95-year-old’s action as barbaric and promptly intensified pressure at home and abroad to get him to back down on his pursuit of Mr Farotimi.
Mr Farotimi was arrested in Lagos on Tuesday and transported to Ekiti hours later. The police unveiled 16 counts of criminal defamation against him before a judge on Wednesday, and the matter was adjourned for a bail hearing on December 6.
On Friday, Peoples Gazette received court documents from the police in which they levelled 13 fresh charges against Mr Farotimi, accusing him, among others, of disparaging Mr Babalola during an appearance on a podcast by journalist Seun Okinbaloye and on his own YouTube channel.
The criminal complaint, marked FHC/AD/CR/104/2024, was addressed to Mr Farotimi, but it was unclear whether or not he had been served as of Friday afternoon.
