The Nigerian police, on Thursday, re-arraigned controversial social media influencer, Martins Otse, popularly called VeryDarkMan (VDM), for allegedly cyberbullying actresses Iyabo Ojo and Tonto Dikeh.
VDM was also alleged to have cyberbullied famous Nigerian producer and singer, Samuel Oguachuba, also known as Samklef, among others.
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The police, through the office of the Inspector-General of Police, re-arraigned him before trial judge Musa Liman of the Federal High Court in Abuja on five counts on Thursday.
He, however, pleaded not guilty to the charges.
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His lawyer, Deji Adeyanju, prayed the court to allow VDM to continue on the earlier bail granted by the former trial judge, Mobolaji Olajuwon.
The prosecution lawyer, Victor Okoye, did not object, allowing the judge to release the defendant on the earlier bail terms.
The judge adjourned the trial until 24 July.
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The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the police first arraigned VDM on the same set of charges on 22 May 2024 before the former trial judge, Mobolaji Olajuwon.
After VDM’s initial remand, Ms Olajuwon granted him a N10 million bail with two sureties on 10 June 2024. The judge ruled that the sureties must be employees of a reputable company or Level 17 officers in a federal civil service with evidence of three years’ tax clearance.
It was learnt that the case was reassigned to Mr Liman after Ms Olajuwon was transferred to another division of the Federal High Court.
This prompted the re-arraignment of the defendant before the new judge on Thursday.
Charges
The case, marked FHC/ABJ/CR/140/2024, was filed on 28 March 2024.
In the charges, the police accused VDM of committing offences contrary to and punishable under Section 24 of the Cybercrime (Prohibition, Prevention, etc) Act, 2015.
In count one, VDM was alleged to have on or about 13 October 2023, intentionally published via a video posted on his Instagram handle ‘verydarkblackman’, (aka verydarkblackman) threatening and bullying words, to harass Samuel Oguachuba.
In count two, the prosecution accused him of intentionally posting on 29 October 2023, videos on his Instagram handles containing information said to be grossly offensive, pornographic or of an indecent, obscene or menacing character against Iyabo Ojo.
In the video, he was alleged to have stated that “one Ivabo Ojo is having an indecent sexual relationship with her daughter.”
The charges also alleged that VDM, 0n 19 January 2024, knowingly posted videos on his Instagram handles where he “falsely published that King Tonto Dikeh is accused of criminal conversion of the proceeds of crowd funding for Justice for Mobbad Movement, and being the person behind the gistlover blog.”
In Count 4, the defendant was alleged to have intentionally posted videos on 19 March 2024, on his Instagram handle against the Deputy Inspectors Generals of Police and lawmakers in the National Assembly considered to be annoying and insulting.
VDM recently made news after his run-in with GT Bank and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
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