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Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) Femi Falana has challenged the choice by the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) to feature social media influencer Martins Vincent Otse, commonly known as VeryDarkMan (VDM), as a panel speaker during its ongoing annual conference in Port Harcourt.
Otse appeared during a Tuesday panel session titled “Known Gunmen or Unknown Gunmen,” where he discussed his encounters reporting on insecurity and touring areas impacted by violence and killings.
His presence at the 66th Annual General Conference of the NBA held in Rivers State has sparked divided opinions among legal practitioners and observers, with critics questioning the move while others support it.
Appearing on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily on Thursday, Falana stated that the panel discussion would have benefited more from someone possessing professional expertise in the nation’s security framework.
“In those days, the NBA brought Individuals who had paid their dues, who had who were coming to engage lawyers intellectually. We wanted to learn from them and so none of our conferences was a circus show in the past, you know,” Falana said.
He contended that conversations regarding national security ought to highlight individuals with proven backgrounds in the sector.
“So, if you are bringing in an expert to discuss the security of the country, either from the private or public sector, such an individual must have contributed to the security architecture of the country.
“But when you bring people who have nothing to do with the security of the country, there are problems.”
Falana likened the invitation to appointing someone devoid of professional background to speak to journalists about press freedom.
“It’s like talking about media freedom, press freedom. You are going to bring practitioners in that field, either in academics or in the newsroom. But to just go and bring somebody from nowhere to come and entertain you, there are problems with that. And I think that was the problem associated with that particular lecturer, I mean an individual,” he added.
During the panel discussion, Otse claimed that specific police personnel stationed at highway checkpoints pinpoint wealthy travelers and pass details regarding their identity and transit paths to kidnappers, effectively aiding abductions for ransom.
The Nigeria Police Force swiftly dismissed the assertion, labeling it ungrounded and harmful to the organization’s reputation.
The Force challenged Otse to produce proof backing the claim, noting that any valid intelligence would be handled properly and probed thoroughly.
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