A High Court sitting in Lagos State has ruled against social media activist, Mr Martin Otse, aka VeryDarkMan, ordering him to remove defamatory remarks and videos regarding lawyer and human rights activist Femi Falana (SAN) and his son, Folarin.
In a judgment delivered by Justice M. O. Idowu on Tuesday, the court also mandated VeryDarkMan to pay N500 million in damages for libel, as detailed in the pre-action bundle of the judgment.
The ruling, under suit no: ID/8584/GCM/2024, highlighted the serious nature of the accusations made by Otse.
The judge stated that the publications posted by VeryDarkMan on his social media accounts on September 24, 2024, which linked popular figure Bobrisky to Falz and his father, were defamatory and had caused significant harm to their public image.
Dawodu stated, “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.”
