A Lagos State High Court in Ikeja on Tuesday struck out the preliminary objection in the defamation suit filed by human rights lawyer Femi Falana, (SAN), and his son, popular musician Folarin Falana, also known as Falz, against social media personality Vincent Otse, popularly called VeryDarkMan.
Justice Mathias Dawoodu struck out the suit following his discovery that the substantive suit was already before another court, rendering further proceedings before him unnecessary.
Neither the Falanas nor Otse was present at the hearing. However, counsel to the defendant, N.O. Alagbe, appearing on behalf of lead counsel Marvin Omorogbe, informed the court that an application dated April 11, 2025, and filed on April 14, 2025, had been brought to stay proceedings, pending judgment by Justice Azeez in a parallel matter.
Justice Dawoodu responded that the said application was not before his court and questioned why he was being troubled with the matter when the substantive suit was already before another court.
Counsel to the Falanas, Omotayo Olatunbosun, told the court that although he received the application at 4:15 pm late on Monday afternoon, the preliminary objection was properly scheduled and ready for hearing.
He accused the defence of attempting to stall the case and cited a Supreme Court decision which held that courts are not bound to act on applications not yet in their files.
He therefore urged the judge to proceed with the business of the day.
After listening to the submissions of counsel, Justice Dawoodu ruled that after considering the matter at hand, the new application filed by defence but not in his file does not warrant going ahead with the suit.
“Consequently, this suit is hereby struck out,” the judge held.
The Falanas had filed the N1bn defamation suit against Otse, demanding N500m each in damages over a video posted on his social media platforms.
In the video, Otse allegedly claimed that Femi Falana demanded N10m, from controversial crossdresser Idris Okuneye, popularly known as Bobrisky, to pervert the course of justice.
The PUNCH
