BREAKING: Femi Falana breaks silence on Bobrisky, VeryDarkMan

Nigerian lawyer and human rights activist, Mr Femi Falana has finally broken his silence on the controversy involving him; his son, Folarin, better known by his stage name Falz; Mr Idris Okuneye, a cross dresser popularly known as Bobrisky, and Mr Vincent Otse, social media influencer known as VeryDarkMan (VDM).

Recall VeryDarkMan (VDM) had published an audio recording which captured Bobrisky allegedly saying that he spent his jail term in a private apartment. The audio also captured Bobrisky allegedly saying that he paid N15 million to officials of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to drop charges of money laundering against him. Bobrisky was convicted for mutilating the Naira and was sentenced to six months in jail.

Publishing the audio recording, VeryDarkMan fingered Falana and Falz in the disturbing allegations. Later, speaking before a committee of the House of Representatives, VDM said he was in possession of evidence yet to be released to the public, saying that he would continue to fight corruption.

“It is a question of infantile radicalism. Some of our young people are just not prepared to look at the provisions of the law with respect to the law on defamation. They just simply go out there to embarrass people. I can say this without any fear of contradiction,” Falana said on Channels TV Politics Today on Thursday.

Speaking further, the human rights activist went on to detail how he has assisted several person who were convicted of crimes and did not receive a penny for the assistance.

“I have assisted 280 convicted people, at home and abroad, to get pardon. On one occasion, 200 Nigerians were convicted in Libya for drug related offences. But because the trials were conducted in Arabic and none of them spoke Arabic, I petitioned the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (the ACHPR).

“That Commission, at our instance, issued a provisional order, like an injuction, restraining the government of Libya from executing the Nigerians. I did that petition on behalf of SERAP. I think Abike Dabiri-Erewa was then the Chair of the Diaspora Committee of the House of Reps. That Committee had appealed to the federal government in vain.

“But based on our intervention, the court issued an order, and two months later, President Gaddafi, the late Muammar Gaddafi became the Chair of the African Union. We took advantage of that to write to him and appealed to him to pardon these Nigerians by complying with the judgement of the African Commission and that if you do not, you will be showing a bad example as the leader of the continent, as the Chair of the African Union.

“President Gaddafi granted our request and granted pardon to the 200 convicted Nigerians on death roll. They were deported and brought back to Nigeria.

“On another occasion, and this was 2015, we appealed to General Muhammadu Buhari. 70 soldiers and a General who was demoted to the rank of a colonel, had fought terrorists but they did not have adequate equipment. Mr President since you setup a presidential arms procurement panel, which have confirmed  those who looted the huge sum  over 2 billion Dollars earmarked for procurement of arms, please can you grant pardon to these guys who were illegally convicted and sentenced.

“The 70 soldiers were sentenced to death. General Enitan Ransome Kuti was demoted to the rank of a colonel and also jailed for 6 months. We got the army council to quash his conviction for 6 months and we now appealed to President Buhari to pardon him and happily his rank has since been restored. He has retired now as a Brigadier General. While we are pursuing the demand for payment of the entitlement of the 70 soldiers.

“I can go on and on. In 1991, 12 young people, under 17, were illegally sentenced to death. They were convicted of arm robbery and sentenced to death in Lagos by an arm robbery tribunal. Again, we rushed to the court to stop their execution. When a civilian government came on board in 1992, we appealed to the late Chief Michael Otedola as the Governor of Lagos State to pardon these young people. They were pardoned.

“So, we already have a list of 280 people. On no occasion, in none of these cases, has our law firm demanded for or received a dime or a Kobo from anybody who has been granted pardon,” he narrated.

Bobrisky never spoke to me; I have never met him – Falana

Speaking further, Falana reaffirmed that he has never met Bobrisky before and that he does not even know the crossdresser from Adam. He, however, confirmed his son, Falz spoke with Bobrisky but that Falz instead ‘redirected’ her/him.

“Bobrisky never spoke to me; I have never met him; I do not know him from Adam. He was alleged to have spoken to my son, Folarin, Falz. Yes, my son said this guy was appealing to people for assistance and he called my son on May 4 this year, please can you give me N3 million to be placed in a special part of the prison. We call it the VIP section.

“And my son asked him are you calling me under the authorization of the superintendent of prisons? He said no. Please, do not call me again. I am unable to bribe the prison authorities and be very careful since you are already jailed for an offence. Please, if you are going to call me next time, you either do it through the superintendent or you write a letter endorsed by the prison authority and that was the last.

“Somebody now said he listened to a tape somewhere and went out to lampoon and rather defame me by saying the guy had spoken to me. Of course, we are going to examine the call logs and my son has also said this was the guy’s originating call to me. My son has never negotiated fees on behalf of anybody.

“On the contrary, my three children normally refer people who need assistance to me and not all those. In fact, my wife was asking her kins recently why are you always sending people who are not able to pay our fees. Next time, we are going to be charging you,” he said.

We want to make example in this case – Falana

Speaking further, Falana stressed that he is not going to allow this case slide and that he is going to make an example in this case. Noting that he has resisted the temptation to file a criminal complaint against VeryDarkMan, Falana disclosed that he will “embark on civil proceedings”.

He said: “Now, what I am going to do. I have resisted the temptation to file a criminal complaint because I am leading a team of lawyers in West Africa campaigning for decriminalisation of freedom of expression. We have succeeded.

“This campaign is being coordinated by the Media Foundation for West Africa of which I am a member of the board. We succeeded in getting Liberia, Ghana and Sierra Leone to decriminalise freedom of expression. We are still appealing to other countries in the region to ensure that we respect the freedom of expression. But that is not a licence for defaming people; for blackmailing people.

“What we are saying, if you are defamed, in the words of the late Justice Olatawura in the case of Arthur Nwankwo vs the State, if you are defamed by anybody, go out there and sue for libel where you will put your own character in issue.

“In this case, we are not going to file a criminal complaint. We will not be pushed to do that. I am currently defending a couple of journalists who are standing trial either under the Cybercrimes Act or under criminal libel. What we are going to do is to embark on civil proceedings with a view to restoring our integrity; my own name and that of my son. So that nobody will simply rush to the social media to defame any Nigerian. We want to make an example in this case.

“We have asked for a retraction and an apology rendered to us and that is not too much. If we don’t have a retraction and an apology acceptable to us, accepted by us, we are certainly going to initiate civil proceedings in the High Court”.