Court Strikes Out Falana, Falz’s N1bn Defamation Suit Against Verydarkblackman

 

A Lagos High Court sitting in Ikeja on Tuesday struck out the defamation suit filed against controversial blogger Martins Otse, popularly known as Verydarkblackman (VDM).

The suit was instituted by renowned human rights lawyer and Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Femi Falana, and his son, rapper and activist Folarin Falana, widely known as Falz.

The case stemmed from comments and a video published by VDM on 24 September 2024 via his various social media platforms.

In separate suits, the Falanas sought N500 million each in damages, accusing the blogger of defaming them by alleging in the video that they had received N10 million from social media personality Idris Okuneye, a.k.a. Bobrisky, to pervert the course of justice.

The claimants contended that the defendant knowingly published unverified and false information with the intention of tarnishing their reputation. They further argued that the defamatory content remained accessible online, thereby causing continuous reputational damage.

During Tuesday’s proceedings, neither the claimants nor the defendant was present in court.

Counsel representing the defendant, Niyi Alagbe, standing in for Marvin Omorogbe, informed the court that an application for a stay of proceedings had earlier been filed before Justice Fimisola Azeez.

Responding, the Falanas’ counsel, Omotayo Olatunbosun, confirmed receipt of the said application around 4:15 p.m. on Monday, but urged the court to hear the preliminary objection, which he noted was already ripe for hearing. He argued that the new application was merely a ploy to delay the proceedings.

Justice Matthias Dawodu, in his ruling, stated that the application was not part of the case file before him and questioned why he was being asked to continue hearing the matter when the substantive suit was before another judge.

He concluded that proceeding with the current suit would amount to an academic exercise, and accordingly, struck it out.

“Consequently, this suit is hereby struck out,” the judge ruled.