{"id":55946,"date":"2024-11-14T13:38:29","date_gmt":"2024-11-14T13:38:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/?p=55946"},"modified":"2024-11-14T13:38:29","modified_gmt":"2024-11-14T13:38:29","slug":"lagos-court-vdm-draws-crowd-amid-%e2%82%a6500m-defamation-battle-with-falanas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/2024\/11\/14\/lagos-court-vdm-draws-crowd-amid-%e2%82%a6500m-defamation-battle-with-falanas\/","title":{"rendered":"Lagos Court: VDM Draws Crowd Amid \u20a6500M Defamation Battle with Falanas"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By Jesusemen Oratokhai<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Martins Vincent Otse, popularly known as VeryDarkMan (VDM), arrived at the Lagos State High Court today to the cheers of fans rallying in his support as he faces a high-profile defamation suit filed by prominent human rights lawyer Femi Falana and his son, musician and activist Falz.<\/p>\n<p>The Falanas claim VeryDarkMan made defamatory statements about them on social media, leading to an initial court ruling that ordered him to remove the content and imposed a \u20a6500 million libel fine.<\/p>\n<p>Unfazed, VeryDarkMan has appealed the ruling, drawing both supporters and critics as the legal battle escalates.<\/p>\n<p>Inside the packed courtroom, the Falanas continued to press their case, arguing that the posts were damaging to their reputation.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, VeryDarkMan\u2019s legal team challenged the allegations, asserting his right to free expression and vowing to overturn the previous judgment.<\/p>\n<p>Today\u2019s court session marks the latest twist in a case that has captivated social media, where VeryDarkMan\u2019s outspoken style and the Falanas&#8217; influential status have sparked intense public debate.<\/p>\n<p>As the proceedings unfold, Nigerians remain glued to a legal showdown that underscores the powerful intersection of social media, celebrity, and the law in shaping public discourse.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Jesusemen Oratokhai Martins Vincent Otse, popularly known as VeryDarkMan (VDM), arrived at the Lagos State High Court today to the cheers of fans rallying in his support as he faces a high-profile defamation suit filed by prominent human rights lawyer Femi Falana and his son, musician and activist Falz. The Falanas claim VeryDarkMan made [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":55947,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1386,172],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-55946","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-judiciary","category-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55946","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/32"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=55946"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55946\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":55948,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55946\/revisions\/55948"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/55947"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55946"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55946"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55946"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}