Rapper and activist, Folarin Falana, better known as Falz, has spoken for the first time on the legal battle with social media personality, Martins Otse popularly known as VeryDarkMan (VDM), saying the latter would get the trouble he is looking for.
The lawsuit followed a leaked voice recording of crossdresser Bobrisky narrating how Falz and his father, Femi Falana, a human rights lawyer, allegedly contacted him to ‘purchase’ presidential pardon for N10 million after the crossdresser was jailed for six months over abuse of the naira.
VeryDarkMan published the leaked recording on social media.
However, in an interview on The AfroBeats podcast posted on YouTube on Wednesday, Falz said VeryDarkMan has to prove his allegations.
He also frowned at VeryDarkMan’s failure to tender a public apology.
Falz said, “When I reached out to him over the audio, this guy was instantly defensive from the beginning; I’m like bro, try and listen. What are you instantly fighting about?
“And he said without mincing words, ‘You are a lawyer, you can go to court’.
“I will have him know that there is a criminal angle to defamation, but I chose not to go that way. He could have been arrested because what you posted is absolutely false and I need you to take it down and tender an apology within a certain amount of time and what did he do? Nothing.
“I don’t know if it portrays him as a hero. He didn’t apologise, and people are trying to peddle me as an oppressor. So if you say you want to find trouble, that is my work. If you insist that’s what you are looking for, let’s go.”
The rapper also addressed recent misreporting, clarifying that while no financial settlement had been ordered by the court, there was a ruling for VeryDarkMan to take down the defamatory video.
He said, “Now, recently it was reported that the court has ordered N500 million to be paid, blah, blah, I mean, that’s false. The case of defamation is still very much in court. Yes, we have instituted proceedings for defamation because, of course, that is what this is.
“That is very much still ongoing. However, there’s something called interim applications, which you can do while a substantive case is still ongoing. You can apply to the court for an injunction because this defamation still subsists.
“This video I speak of is still very much on his page, on his pages. He has not taken them down.”
The ‘Soft Work’ singer stressed that the first time he heard of VDM’s cause before he allegedly defamed him and his father was when he waged a war against unregistered skincare vendors in Nigeria.
He said, “What I had seen and remember seeing was from a while ago. Some stuff about people who didn’t have NAFDAC numbers and were selling bleaching products.
“At the time when I saw those clips, I thought, ‘This person seems to be doing something right; this is a good cause,’ but aside from that, I wouldn’t lie to you, I haven’t seen much of his work.”
