Renowned human rights lawyer, Femi Falana, SAN, has refuted any association with the embattled crossdresser, Idris Okuneye, popularly known as Bobrisky.
Falana stated this in reaction to the claims of his alleged involvement with Bobrisky bribing prison officials to serve his sentence outside of the correctional facility.
Recall that in a widely circulated video recently, a social media activist, Martins Otse, popularly known as VeryDarkMan, alleged that certain unnamed officers from the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) received ₦15 million from Bobrisky to dismiss money laundering charges against him.
Additionally, VeryDarkMan claimed that Falana attempted to secure a presidential pardon for Bobrisky in return for ₦10 million.
However, while appearing as a guest on Channels Television’s Politics Today on Thursday, Falana asserted that he has never met or communicated with Bobrisky.
“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 said he and his firm have requested that VeryDarkMan retract his statement and also tender an apology, which is subjected to their approval.
Falana threatened to initiate civil proceedings in the high court should VeryDarkMan fail to apologize for his claims.
Falana further narrated how Bobrisky spoke to his son, Folarin Falana.
He said: “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 started releasing tapes somewhere and went out to lampoon and rather defame me by saying the guy has spoken to me.”
The SAN, who characterized the allegation as “infantile radicalism,” stated that he had aided 280 individuals, both domestically and internationally, in obtaining pardons and has never requested or received any financial compensation from those granted pardons.
He mentioned that he has refrained from filing a criminal complaint as he is currently leading a team of West African lawyers advocating decriminalizing freedom of expression.
Nevertheless, he emphasized that this should not be interpreted as a justification for defamation and blackmail and indicated that they will pursue civil action to restore both his and his son’s reputations.
Falana expressed their intention to use this case as a precedent to deter individuals from resorting to social media for the purpose of defaming any Nigerian.
“We have asked for a retraction and an apology rendered to us and that is not too much. And if we do not have a retraction and apology acceptable to us, we are certainly going to initiate civil proceedings in the high court,” he said.
Falana remarked on the purported corruption within the correctional service, asserting that he has been the most active in revealing Nigerian correctional facilities’ issues.
He expressed astonishment at the decision of the House of Representatives to establish a committee aimed at investigating the state of the correctional centres across the nation.
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