The Lagos State High Court has ruled that social media critic Martin Otse, widely known as VeryDarkMan, must remove defamatory posts and videos he made about lawyer and human rights activist Femi Falana (SAN) and his son, musician Folarin Falana (Falz). The court also ordered him to pay N500 million in damages for libel.
Justice M. O. Idowu delivered the verdict in suit no: ID/8584/GCM/2024 on Tuesday. The judge found that the statements made by Otse on September 24, 2024, which linked Bobrisky to Falz and his father, were defamatory and damaging 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.”
