The well-known social activist, Vincent Otse, popularly recognized by his online moniker VeryDarkMan, made an appearance at the Lagos High Court for the hearing regarding the defamation suit initiated by the esteemed Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Femi Falana, and his son, Folarin Falana, also known in the entertainment industry as Falz.
The court appearance follows a controversial video that emerged, reportedly linked to another social media personality, Idris Okuneye (widely known as Bobrisky), in which VeryDarkMan allegedly made disparaging remarks about an alleged role Falana supposedly played in an attempt to secure amnesty for Bobrisky while he was in prison custody.
As a result of these claims, the Falanas took legal action, filing separate lawsuits against the defendant. Each suit demands a substantial sum of N500 million as damages, asserting that the allegations made in the video published on VeryDarkMan’s social media accounts were baseless and defamatory, damaging both Femi and Folarin Falana’s reputations by suggesting they had received N10 million from Bobrisky in order to obstruct justice.
Within their legal filings, the father-son duo argued that VeryDarkMan knowingly spread false and unverified information, with the intent to harm their professional and personal reputations. The Falanas also noted that these defamatory claims continue to circulate online due to the defendant's refusal to take down the video, which remains accessible on his social media accounts, thus perpetuating the injury to their reputation with each day the content remains available to the public.
During the proceedings, presiding Justice Dawodu reviewed the ex-parte application filed alongside the primary lawsuit. After careful consideration, the judge ordered VeryDarkMan, along with any individuals working on his behalf or connected to him, to remove the offending videos and any related defamatory content posted on September 24, 2024, across all his social media platforms.
Furthermore, Justice Dawodu issued a restraining order against VeryDarkMan, explicitly barring him from producing, posting, or sharing any additional defamatory statements, images, or videos that could harm the reputation of Falana and his son.
In the official ruling, Justice Dawodu stated: “The defendant, his agents, and privies are hereby restrained from further releasing, publishing, or circulating any defamatory videos/comments about the applicant and are instructed to remove the defamatory videos/comments about the applicant, posted on September 24, 2024, from all his online social media handles/pages until the pre-action protocol of this court has been fully complied with.”