The Legal Practitioners Disciplinary Committee, LPDC, says it cannot revoke the license that allows the embattled, controversial author and activist, Dele Farotimi, to practice law in Nigeria.
The legal body held that it lacked the requisite jurisdiction to delve into issues relating to the allegation of criminal defamation and professional misconduct, which were brought against Mr Farotimi by the law firm of Afe Babalola, SAN, Emmanuel Chambers.
The law firm had, in its petition, urged the LPDC to debar Mr Farotimi by removing his name from the roll of legal practitioners in the country.
In the 90-page petition dated December 6 and signed by a partner in the firm,. Ola Faro, it was alleged that Mr Farotimi violated certain provisions of the rules of professional conduct for lawyers in his contentious book titled “Nigeria And Its Criminal Justice System.”
But the LPDC, in its report said it was satisfied that all the offences that were listed by the petitioners occurred in Mr Farotimi’s capacity as an author and not during his practice as a legal professional.
The LPDC said it lacks the jurisdiction to address complaints about publications, even as it enjoined the aggrieved parties to seek redress in regular courts.
“The publication is an intellectual property and not a conduct or action committed while practising as a legal practitioner.
“All aggrieved parties who find the publication ‘defamatory’ should ventilate their grievances through the regular courts,” the LPDC, which is led by Justice Ishaq Bello, added.
Dele Farotimi has since been arraigned before the Federal High Court in Ekiti State and an Ekiti State Magistrates’ Court, Ado-Ekiti, for alleged criminal defamation.
Likewise, both a High Court of the Federal Capital Territory in Abuja and an Oyo State High Court barred him from further publishing, selling, circulating, advertising, or distributing the hard or soft copies of the controversial book.
