Court strikes out Femi Falana, Falz’s defamation suit against VeryDarkMan

A Lagos State High Court sitting in Ikeja on Tuesday struck out the preliminary objection in the N1 billion defamation suit filed by renowned human rights lawyer, Femi Falana (SAN), and his son, popular musician Folarin Falana, known as Falz, against social media influencer Vincent Otse, also called VeryDarkMan.

Justice Mathias Dawoodu struck out the case after discovering that the main suit was already pending before another court, which made it unnecessary to continue proceedings in his court.

Both the Falanas and Otse were absent from the court session. However, the defence counsel, N.O. Alagbe, standing in for lead counsel Marvin Omorogbe, informed the court about an application filed on April 14, 2025, seeking to stay proceedings pending a judgment by Justice Azeez on a similar matter.

Justice Dawoodu responded that the application was not before him and questioned why the case was being entertained in his court when the substantive issue was already before another judge.

On his part, the Falanas’ counsel, Omotayo Olatunbosun, acknowledged receiving the application late on Monday, but insisted the preliminary objection was properly scheduled for hearing.

He accused the defence of trying to delay the matter and referenced a Supreme Court decision stating that courts are not obliged to act on documents not yet in their files.

Despite this argument, Justice Dawoodu ruled that the situation did not justify continuing with the case. “Consequently, this suit is hereby struck out,” he declared.

The defamation suit, filed by the Falanas, seeks N500 million each in damages over a video posted by Otse on his social media accounts.

In the video, Otse allegedly accused Femi Falana of demanding N10 million from controversial crossdresser Idris Okuneye, popularly known as Bobrisky, to obstruct justice.