Falana Slams NBA Over VeryDarkMan’s Invitation to Annual Conference

Human rights lawyer and Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Femi Falana, has criticised the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) over its decision to invite social media activist Martins Vincent Otse, popularly known as VeryDarkMan (VDM), to speak at its 2026 Annual General Conference in Port Harcourt, Rivers State.

Falana expressed his concerns during an appearance on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily, questioning the suitability of featuring VDM at a professional gathering attended by lawyers and experts from various fields.

He said the NBA’s annual conference should provide a platform for professionals with proven experience to engage members of the legal profession on issues within their areas of expertise.

“The NBA brought individuals who had paid their dues, who were coming to engage lawyers intellectually. We are going to learn from them. If you are bringing an expert to discuss the security of the country, either from the public or private sector, such an individual must have contributed to the security architecture of the country.

“But when you bring people who have nothing to do with the security of the country, there are problems. It’s like talking about press freedom, you are going to bring practitioners in that field. Bringing somebody from nowhere to come and entertain you, there are problems with that,” Falana said.

VDM’s invitation to the conference had sparked controversy among lawyers and members of the public, with some questioning the decision to invite a social media commentator to address one of the country’s largest gatherings of legal professionals.

During a plenary session on “Known Gun Men” at the conference, VDM made several claims about Nigeria’s security challenges. He alleged that politics was responsible for the persistence of insecurity and accused some elements within government and security agencies of benefiting from the crisis.

He was also reported to have alleged that some police officers manning checkpoints along major highways sometimes pass information about travellers to kidnappers and bandits, thereby facilitating abductions for ransom.

VDM further made a controversial claim concerning cattle, alleging that the movement and ownership of large numbers of cattle were being used by some government officials to launder stolen public funds.

His allegations have since drawn a response from the Nigeria Police Force.

The Force Public Relations Officer, CSP Ani Iniedu, rejected VDM’s claim that police officers at checkpoints collude with kidnappers and bandits and invited him to provide evidence to support the allegation.

The police said allegations of such gravity require credible and corresponding evidence, stressing that the institution should not be unfairly damaged by unverified claims.

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