The High Court sitting in Lagos State has ordered controversial social media critic Martin Otse, popularly known as VeryDarkMan, to delete defamatory comments and videos related to lawyer and human rights activist Femi Falana (SAN) and his son, Folarin Falana, popularly known as Falz, from his social media accounts.
The court also ordered VeryDarkMan to pay a substantial sum of N500 million to Falana and his son, Falz, as compensation for libel.
News About Nigeria reports that the judgement was delivered by Justice M. O. Dawodu in suit no: ID/8584/GCM/2024 on Tuesday.
The court’s judgement comes as part of a legal response to the allegations made by VeryDarkMan that Falana and his son received bribe to the tune of N15 million to get a presidential pardon for crossdresser Idris Okuneye, also known as Bobrisky.
VeryDarkMan had also alleged that Falz was involved in Bobrisky’s case with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) because he is gay.
Delivering judgement on the matter today, Justice Dawodu held that the publications made by VeryDarkMan on his social media accounts on September 24, 2024, linking Bobrisky to Falz and his father were defamatory and injurious to their public image.
The judgement partly reads, “According to the applicants (Falz and Falana), the defendant (VeryDarkMan) knew these statements (Bobrisky’s claims) were false and untrue but proceeded to publish them to injure their reputation.
“Furthermore, the defamatory statements are still trending on the defendant (VeryDarkMan)’s several online platforms and the injury to their reputation continues as long as the publication remains online.”
