Justice Matthias Dawodu of the Lagos High Court, Ikeja, on Tuesday dismissed the defamation suit filed by a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Femi Falana, against an Instagram celebrity, Martins Otse aka Verydarkblackman (VDM).
Falana and his son, Folarin aka Falz, filed the suit after a controversial cross-dresser, Okuneye Idris aka Bobrisky, accused them of perversion of justice in an audio recording
The claimants demanded N500 million each as damages over a video VDM posted on his social media platforms.
When the case was called on Tuesday, Falana, his son, and VDM were not in court.
However, counsel to the respondent, Mr. Niyi Alagbe, who held brief for Mr. Marvin Omorogbe, informed the court that he had earlier applied for a stay of proceedings before Justice Fimisola Azeez.
Counsel to the Falanas, Mr. Omotayo Olatunbosun, in his response, informed the court that he received the said application on Monday evening.
Olatunbosun argued that the matter of the day was the preliminary objection, which he said was ripe for hearing,
He urged the judge to proceed with the business of the day.
However, in his ruling, Justice Matthias Dawodu said the application in question was not in the file and wondered why he was being troubled with the case when the substantive suit was before another court.
He struck out the suit and held that it would be an academic exercise to go ahead with it since the substantive suit was before another judge.
“Consequently, this suit is hereby struck out,” the judge said.
© Ripples Nigeria