A Lagos High Court on Thursday adjourned the hearing in a defamation case against controversial social media critic, Martins Vincent Otse aka VeryDarkMan, until January 23, 2025.
VeryDarkMan had shown up at the courtroom at 9:30 a.m. for the hearing on the lawsuit that Femi Falana, SAN, and his son Folarin Falana, also known as Falz, had filed against him.
Mr. Muiz Banire (SAN), Falana and Falz’s attorney told the court at Thursday’s case call that the claimants had filed and served the parties with the originating process.
Additionally, Banire stated that a notice motion was issued on October 25; however, Justice Matthias Dawodu stated that the court did not have the original process.
But in order to submit administrative procedures, the claimant’s attorney asked the court to postpone the case until another date for further hearing.
“In this circumstance, my lord, the best thing to do is to adjourn the matter so that we can go back to the registry to file all the administrative processes,” Banire said.
Mr. Marvin Omorogbe, VeryDarkMan’s attorney, responded by stating that the court should dismiss the complaint since it had been noted that there was no legitimate writ of summons in front of it.
He stated that he had no idea how the court registry would draft any administrative procedures and that the writ that had already been filed was void because it had not yet been heard by the court.
Omorogbe said, “Preemptive remedy proceedings end after an injunction is granted or refused.
“They have gone ahead to file a writ, using the same suit number as the preemptive remedy proceedings.
“And the court said no, that a fresh writ of summons with a new suit number, needs to be filed.
“At this point my lord, we will be seeking a date to hear our preliminary objection”.
Omorogbe further sought the court to revoke a motion dated October 18, stating that it was an appeal move based on the claimants’ admission that there was a problem with the preemptive actions.
However, as the claimant’s attorney raised no objections, Justice Dawodu ruled out the motion and postponed the case until January 23, 2025, to hear the preliminary objections.
