Controversial social media critic Martin Otse widely known as VeryDarkMan has been ordered by the Lagos State High Court to retract defamatory comments and videos made against lawyer and human rights activist, Femi Falana (SAN) and his son Folarin Falana popularly known as Falz.
Justice M. O. Dawodu delivered the judgment in suit no: ID/8584/GCM/2024 on Tuesday, citing the defamatory nature of the publications made by VeryDarkMan.
The court also awarded N500 million in damages to the Falanas for libel as detailed in the pre-action notice included in the judgment.
According to Dawodu, the defamatory posts published on VeryDarkMan’s social media accounts on September 24 falsely linked the Falanas to controversial crossdresser Bobrisky, adding that these statements were not only untrue but damaging to their public image.
Justice Dawodu emphasised that VeryDarkMan was aware of the falsehoods in his statements but chose to publish them with the intent to harm the reputation of the applicants.
The ruling also noted that the defamatory content remains accessible across VeryDarkMan’s online platforms, prolonging the damage to the Falanas’ reputation as long as the publications stay online.
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.”
He further ruled, “The defendant, his agents, and privies are hereby restrained from further releasing, publishing, or circulating any defamatory videos or comments about the applicants and must remove the defamatory video or comments about the applicants published on September 24, 2024, on all his online social media handles/pages pending compliance with the Pre-Action Protocol of this honourable court.”
