The case of defamation instituted by human rights activist, Femi Falana and his son, Folarin, popularly known as Falz, against social media influencer, Vincent Otse, aka VeryDarkMan, has suffered a slight setback.
A Lagos High Court entertaining the matter disclosed on Thursday when the matter was called for hearing that most of the applications filed by the parties are not yet in the court file.
To this end, the court could not proceed with the hearing and therefore adjourned the suit till next year for hearing.
The presiding judge, Justice Matthias Dawodu, specifically adjourned the case till January 23, 2025.
VDM had arrived in court dressed in red native attire, surrounded by fans cheering him on.
However, the Senior Advocate of Nigeria and his musician son, Falz, were absent in court.
VeryDarkMan in a leaked video purportedly made by Idris Okuneye popularly known as Bobrisky had reacted to alleged role played by Falana in Bobrisky’s attempt to secure amnesty while in the custody of the Nigeria Correctional Centre.
The remarks made by VDM were greeted with controversies.
The Falanas’ raised eyebrows and accused VDM of defamation.
Consequently, Falana through a letter by his law firm demanded a retraction of the allegation and subsequently filed a libel suit against the social media influencer before a Lagos State High Court.
Justice Dawodu while ruling on an exparte application for an order of interim and preemptive remedy held that the Falanas have legal rights to be protected from being slandered.
The court then ordered VDM to bring down the alleged defamatory video that he made on September 24, 2024, against the SAN and his son.
Justice Dawodu also restrained VDM from further releasing, publishing, or circulating any defamatory videos and comments against the senior lawyer and his son on all his online social media handles and pages pending the hearing of the suit filed by the duo.
