Court adjourns Falana’s defamation suit against VDM

The defamation lawsuit between social media critic Martins Vincent, known as VeryDarkMan, and prominent civil rights lawyer Femi Falana, along with his son Folarin Falana, has been postponed.

The decision was made after the hearing at the Lagos State High Court, Ikeja, on Thursday failed to hold because most of the applications filed by the parties are not yet in the court file.

The court, however, adjourned the hearing to 23 January 2025.

Meanwhile, VDM arrived at the court’s premises around 9:30 a.m., dressed in red attire and supported by fans who cheered as he entered the courtroom.

However, neither Femi Falana nor Falz was present.

In September, PREMIUM TIMES reported that VDM posted a leaked audio clip of Bobrisky on his Instagram page, in which the crossdresser implicated Falz and his father.

Bobrisky, whose real name is Idris Okuneye, alleged that while imprisoned at the Kirikiri Correctional Centre, Falz and his father contacted him to facilitate a ‘presidential pardon’ for a fee of N10 million.

However, Mr Falana and his son denied the allegation and demanded that VDM issue an apology and retract his statement, which they described as ‘defamatory’, within 24 hours.

When the social media influencer failed to retract the statement or apologise, the Lagos State High Court ordered VDM to delete the defamatory comments and videos he made about Mr Falana and his son in September.

Justice M.O. Dawodu issued the order in response to Mr Falana’s preliminary application for preemptive measures to restrain VDM from further defaming him and his son.

The order followed Mr Falana’s ex parte originating application filed on 9 October.

In the ex parte application, heard by the judge on 10 October, Mr Falana sought various preemptive orders against VDM ahead of the substantive suit’s hearing.

He also requested permission to serve VDM through substituted means, such as serving the suit on his lawyer.

The Falanas filed separate lawsuits against the defendant, each seeking N500 million in damages for a video he shared on social media.

The video accused them of accepting N10 million from Idris Okuneye, also known as Bobrisky, to obstruct justice.

In their suits, the father and son argued that the defendant’s statements were baseless and defamatory, intended solely to harm their reputations. They further noted that the post remains accessible on his social media, causing ongoing damage to their image.

This newspaper reported that since VDM leaked the audio, there has been widespread public debate and ongoing developments.

The growing concerns triggered investigations by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), whose agents were allegedly bribed with N15 million to drop money laundering charges against Bobrisky, and the Nigerian Correctional Service (NCoS), which was accused of accepting bribes to grant Bobrisky VIP custody instead of regular prison treatment.

A report from the panel set up by the Minister of Interior, Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, to investigate alleged breaches of standard operating procedures within the NCoS revealed that Bobrisky lived outside the Correctional Service Centre during his six-month imprisonment.

Additionally, the House of Representatives launched an investigation into the allegations.