A Lagos High Court has struck out the defamation lawsuit filed by human rights lawyer Femi Falana (SAN) and his son, musician Folarin Falana (Falz), against controversial social media figure Vincent Otse, also known as VeryDarkMan.
Justice Mathias Dawodu dismissed the suit after noting that a similar case involving the same parties is already pending before another judge, Justice Azeez. He questioned the relevance of continuing proceedings in his courtroom while a parallel case was active elsewhere.
Neither the Falana family nor Otse appeared in court on Tuesday. However, Otse’s lawyer, N.O. Alagbe, informed the judge that an application had been filed to pause the matter pending resolution of the other case. The judge stated that the application was not in his court file and therefore unnecessary for consideration.
Counsel to the Falanas, Omotayo Olatunbosun, expressed frustration over the delay, claiming the defence was intentionally dragging the case and had only served the application late the previous evening.
Despite the protest, Justice Dawodu held that the matter was duplicative and struck it out.
The Falanas had sought N1 billion in damages over a video in which Otse allegedly accused Femi Falana of demanding money from crossdresser Idris “Bobrisky” Okuneye to manipulate judicial proceedings.
