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A social media celebrity, Martins Otse, popularly called Verydarkman, has been mandated by a Lagos High Court to pay N200,000 to human rights lawyer, Femi Falana, and his son, Folarin, also known as Falz, for filing an appeal that delayed the court proceedings on the defamation suit before it.
Verydarkman, who is to pay N100, 000 each to the two claimants, had his preliminary objections against the N1 billion defamation suits filed by the father and son dismissed by the court.
The suit before the court was centred on a defamation of character alleged to have been committed by the celebrity in the defendant’s video publication of September 24, 2024, made public through his Instagram.
During proceedings on Tuesday, Justice F. A. Azeez, who delivered rulings on the preliminary objections, directed the defendant to immediately file his defence to the two suits brought against him by the Claimants.
The Claimants, Falana, and his son, in the two different suits have dragged the social media influencer to court accusing him of character assassination, stating that he should purge himself of the accusations by apologising and refrain from further publications.
They also asked the social media influencer to pay the sum of N500,000,000.00 (Five Hundred Million Naira Only) each, amounting to One Billion Naira for defamation of character contained in the Defendant’s video publication of September 24, 2024, on his Instagram handle @verydarkblackman.
