Verydarkman,
A Lagos High Court sitting in Ikeja has struck out the defamation suit filed by Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Femi Falana, and his son, the artist Folarin Falana (popularly known as Falz), against controversial social media personality Martins Otse, also known as Verydarkblackman (VDM).
The case, which centered around a video published by VDM on September 24, 2024, accused the Falanas of allegedly receiving N10 million from Idris Okuneye (also known as Bobrisky) to obstruct justice.
The plaintiffs had filed separate lawsuits, each seeking N500 million in damages over the viral video content.
According to their statements, the father and son argued that the allegations were entirely untrue and unverified, yet VDM published them with the intent to damage their reputation.
They also noted that the said video was still live on the blogger’s platforms, continuing to cause harm.
“In their suits, the father and son submitted that the defendant knew all his comments were unverified and not true, yet he proceeded to publish same to injure their reputation recklessly.”
“They also stated that the alleged defamatory publication is still trending on the defendant’s online handles and pages and as such, the injury to their reputation continues as long as the publication remains online.”
When the matter came up on Tuesday, neither the plaintiffs nor the defendant appeared in court.
However, the defense counsel, Niyi Alagbe, appearing on behalf of Marvin Omorogbe, informed the court that an application for a stay of proceedings had already been filed before Justice Fimisola Azeez.
In response, Omotayo Olatunbosun, counsel for the Falanas, acknowledged receiving the application late Monday afternoon, at about 4:15 p.m.
He argued that the application was a delay tactic and urged the court to proceed with hearing the preliminary objection, which was ready for argument.
But presiding judge, Justice Matthias Dawodu, expressed concern that the application referenced was not found in the court file. He also questioned the relevance of proceeding with the case when the substantive suit was already before another judge.
“Justice Matthias Dawodu said the application in question was not in the file and wondered why he was being troubled with the case when the substantive suit was before another court.”
Consequently, the judge ruled that continuing with the matter would be unnecessary and academic.
“Consequently, this suit is hereby struck out,” he declared.
