Human rights lawyer Femi Falana (SAN) said on Thursday that he has never met nor spoken with crossdresser Idris Okuneye aka Bobrisky following allegations made by social media influencer Martins Otse aka VeryDarkMan.
VeryDarkMan earlier claimed, among other allegations, that Falana and his son Falz sought a presidential pardon for Bobrisky in exchange for N10 million when the crossdresser was sentenced to six months in prison for abuse of the naira.
Addressing the matter for the first time on Channels Television’s Politics Today on Thursday, Falana said, “Bobrisky never spoke to me, I have never met him, I don’t know him from Adam. He was alleged to have spoken to my son, Folarin, Falz. My son said this guy was appealing to him for assistance, and called my son, ‘Please, can you give me N3m to be placed in a special part of the priosn?’ We call it VIP section, and my son asked him, ‘Are you calling me under the authorisation of the superintendent of prisons?’ He said ‘No’, ‘Please don’t call me again. I’m unable to assist you to bribe the prison authorities and please be careful since you are already in jail for an offence, and if you are going to call me next time, you can either do it through the superintendent or write a letter endorsed by the prison authorities.’ And that was the last.
“Somebody now said that he listened to a tape somewhere and went out to lampoon however defame me. My son has never negotiated on behalf of anybody. On the contrary, my three children normally refer people who need assistance to me.”
Falana said he would not file a criminal complaint.
“Now what I am going to do: I have resisted the temptation to file a criminal complaint because I am leading a team of lawyers in West Africa, campaigning for decriminalisation of freedom of expression. In this case, we are not going to file a criminal complaint, we won’t be pushed to do that. What we will do is embark on civil proceedings with a view to restoring our integrity, my own name and that of my son,” he said.
