{"id":65391,"date":"2025-05-07T04:40:51","date_gmt":"2025-05-07T04:40:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/?p=65391"},"modified":"2025-05-07T04:40:51","modified_gmt":"2025-05-07T04:40:51","slug":"drama-deepens-as-efcc-keeps-mum-on-vdms-bail","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/2025\/05\/07\/drama-deepens-as-efcc-keeps-mum-on-vdms-bail\/","title":{"rendered":"Drama Deepens as EFCC Keeps Mum on VDM\u2019s Bail"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By Adewunmi Oluwaseun\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Controversy has continued to trail the detention of popular activist Martin \u2018Verydarkman\u2019 Otse, as his lawyer, Deji Adeyanju, insisted that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), has not formally granted his client bail, contrary to the agency\u2019s claims.<\/p>\n<p>Adeyanju, who confirmed that VDM was arrested at a Guaranty Trust Bank branch in Abuja, challenged EFCC\u2019s earlier statement that Otse had been granted administrative bail.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBail granted VDM? That\u2019s social media bail. We\u2019ve received no document,\u201d he stated on Facebook.<\/p>\n<p>He further disclosed that while another detainee, Steven Avuara, was released after being granted bail, VDM remains in EFCC custody and was subjected to lengthy interrogation on Monday, May 5, in the presence of a legal representative.<\/p>\n<p>According to a statement from Adeyanju\u2019s law firm, the EFCC has yet to inform VDM of the specific allegations against him.<\/p>\n<p>Instead, officers questioned him over issues ranging from the handling of Naira notes in a club to the monetisation of his social media accounts, his public commentary on gospel artists, and his source of income.<\/p>\n<p>Adeyanju described the continued detention as a violation of VDM\u2019s constitutional rights.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis appears to be a case of arrest first, search for evidence later,\u201d he said, demanding the activist\u2019s immediate release or arraignment.<\/p>\n<p>He also appreciated Nigerians for staging protests and urged them to remain peaceful, stressing the importance of lawful expression in a democratic society.<\/p>\n<p>As the protests spread across Abuja and other states, public attention on the case continues to mount, with growing concerns over what many are calling \u201cdetention without justification.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Adewunmi Oluwaseun\u00a0 Controversy has continued to trail the detention of popular activist Martin \u2018Verydarkman\u2019 Otse, as his lawyer, Deji Adeyanju, insisted that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), has not formally granted his client bail, contrary to the agency\u2019s claims. Adeyanju, who confirmed that VDM was arrested at a Guaranty Trust Bank branch [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":65361,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[172],"tags":[59],"class_list":["post-65391","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-featured"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65391","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=65391"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65391\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":65392,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65391\/revisions\/65392"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/65361"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65391"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=65391"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=65391"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}