- Says I Have Never Met, Spoken To Bobrisky
- Demands Retraction, Apology From VDM
Human rights lawyer and Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) Femi Falana, has finally broken his silence regarding bribery and corruption allegation levelled against him.
The Matrix reports that recently, a controversial activist, Martins Vincent Otse, popularly called VeryDarkMan shared a purported audio conversation wherein Bobrisky claimed that Falana and Falz real name Folarin Falanacontacted her.
In the recording, Bobrisky alleged that she spoke with Falz in prison and that the rapper and his dad “tried to get me a presidential pardon in exchange for N10,000,000″.
As a result, VDM had called out Falz and his father saying he has lost the respect he had for Falana over his alleged involvement in the matter.
However, speaking on the issue officially for the first time, Falana while speaking in an interview with Channels Television on Thursday denied speaking nor having met the crossdresser.
“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),” Falana said.
He further narrated, “Yes, my son said this guy was appealing to people for assistance and called my son I think 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.
“My son asked him, are you calling me under the authorization of the superintendent of prisons? He said no – please don’t call me again, I am unable to assist you to bribe the prison authorities, and be very careful since you are already in prison for an offence.
“Please, ‘If you are you are going to call me next time, you either do it through the superintendent or you write a letter endorsed by the prison authorities’ and that was the last. Somebody now start releasing tapes somewhere and went out to lampoon and rather defame me by saying the guy has spoken to me.”
Reacting to the allegations by VDM, Falana described it as “infantile radicalism”.
READ ALSO: VDM Expresses Frustration Over Bobrisky’s Absence At House Probe Panel
The senior lawyer said he has assisted 280 convicted persons secure pardon without collecting a dime from them.
Falana narrated how he facilitated pardon for convicted soldiers in Nigeria and 200 Nigerians in Libya found guilty of drug-related offences.
The human rights lawyers said he will pursue civil procedure on the defamatory statement against him to deter other social media users.
“I think it is a question of infantile radicalism. Some of our young people are not prepared to look at the provisions of the law with respect to the law of defamation,” Falana said.
“They just simply go out there to embarrass people. I can say this without fear of contradiction, I have assisted 280 convicted people home and abroad to get pardon. On no occasion did our law firm demand for or receive a dime or kobo from anybody granted pardon.
“I have resisted the temptation to file a criminal complaint because I’m leading a team of lawyers in West Africa campaigning for decriminalisation of freedom of expression.
“We have succeeded in getting Liberia, Ghana, and Sierra Leone to decriminalise freedom of expression. We are still appealing to other countries in the region but that is not license for defaming and blackmailing people.
READ ALSO: EFCC Confirms VDM Audio, Explains Why Money Laundering Charges Against Bobrisky Were Dropped
“We are not going to file a criminal complaint. We won’t be pushed to do that. What we are going to do is to embark on civil proceedings with a view of 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 and if we don’t have a retraction and apology acceptable to us and accepted by us, we are certainly going to initiate civil proceedings in the High Court” he disclosed.
