FALANA’s alleged defamation case against VDM adjourned to April 15

Thursday, February 20, 2025 - The Lagos High Court sitting in Ikeja has adjourned to April 15, 2025, the alleged defamation case brought by a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Femi Falana, and his son Folarin, popularly known as Falz, against social critic, Martins Otse, popularly known as Verydarkman (VDM).

Justice Matthias Dawodu adjourned the case at the instance of Verydarkman after the court received a letter from his legal representatives, the law firm of Deji Adeyanju & co.

In the letter dated February 18, 2025 and written by a counsel in the firm, Nafiu Alagbe, the lawyer asked the court to adjourn the case to a date in March or April owing to the absence of the lead defence counsel, Marvin Omorogbe, who was said to be unavailable due to a “domestic emergency”.

While Verydarkman was absent in court, Falana was present.

Counsel for the Falanas, Omotayo Olatunbosun, told the court that the letter was just a “time-wasting tactic” on the part of the defendants.

On the prompting of the court, the counsel, however, moved his counter-affidavit challenging the preliminary objection filed by Verydarkman to the defamation suit.

Following the development, Justice Dawodu adjourned the case to April 15, 2025, for a hearing.

Channels Television also learnt that after the exparte application for pre-emptive remedy granted by Justice Dawodu was complied with, the Falanas have filed a substantive suit on the matter, which has been assigned to Justice Fimisola Azeez also of the Lagos High Court, Ikeja.

The Falans dragged VDM, to court over a controversial Voice recording he released last year in which a person purported to be Bobrisky claimed he spoke with Falz while he was in Prison and that he gave a certain Senior Advocate of Nigeria N10m to help secure a Federal government pardon. Bobrisky was in April 2024 sentenced to six months in jail after he was convicted for Naira abuse. 

In the audio released by VDM, the person alleging to be Bobrisky claimed his godfather helped him pay some money to secure an apartment outside the prison facility where he served his jail term.