A Lagos High Court in Ikeja on Tuesday dismissed the defamation lawsuit brought against blogger Martins Otse, widely known as Verydarkblackman (VDM).
The lawsuit was filed by Senior Advocate of Nigeria Femi Falana and his son, Folarin (Falz), in response to comments and a video VDM posted on his social media accounts on September 24, 2024.
In separate suits, the Falanas had sued the defendant, each seeking N500 million in damages for a video where he alleged they accepted N10 million from Idris Okuneye, also known as Bobrisky, to obstruct justice.
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The father and son argued in their suits that VDM knew his comments were unverified and false but still recklessly published them to damage their reputation.
They also stated that the alleged defamatory content remained online, continuing to harm their reputation.
During the court session on Tuesday, neither Falana, his son, nor VDM were present.
However, the respondent’s lawyer, Niyi Alagbe, representing Marvin Omorogbe, informed the court that he had previously filed an application for a stay of proceedings before Justice Fimisola Azeez.
Responding, the Falanas’ lawyer, Omotayo Olatunbosun, stated that he received the application on Monday around 4:15 p.m.
Olatunbosun argued that the scheduled matter was the preliminary objection, which was ready for hearing, and that the new application was intended to cause delays. He urged the judge to proceed with the day’s business.
Justice Matthias Dawodu noted that the application was not in the court file and questioned why he was handling the case when the main lawsuit was before another judge.
Dawodu dismissed the suit, ruling that proceeding with it would be pointless since the substantive suit was already being heard by a different judge.
“Consequently, this suit is hereby struck out,” he stated.
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