Past NBA conferences were not circus shows — Falana slams VeryDarkMan’s invitation

Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Femi Falana, has criticised the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) for inviting social media personality Martins Vincent Otse, popularly known as VeryDarkMan (VDM), as a panelist at its ongoing annual conference, saying past NBA conferences were not “circus shows.”

Falana made the remarks on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily on Thursday while reacting to Otse’s appearance at the 66th Annual General Conference of the NBA in Rivers State.

Otse featured on Tuesday in a panel session titled “Known Gunmen or Unknown Gunmen”, where he discussed his experiences covering insecurity and visiting communities affected by killings and attacks.

Falana said discussions on national security at an NBA conference should involve individuals with demonstrable experience in the country’s security architecture.

“In those days, the NBA brought individuals who had paid their dues, who were coming to engage lawyers intellectually. We wanted to learn from them, and so none of our conferences was a circus show in the past,” he said.

The legal practitioner argued that the association should invite experts who had made meaningful contributions to the country’s security sector when organising sessions on national security.

“So, if you are bringing in an expert to discuss the security of the country, either from the private or public sector, such an individual must have contributed to the security architecture of the country,” Falana said.

He added, “But when you bring people who have nothing to do with the security of the country, there are problems.”

Falana likened the invitation to bringing someone without professional experience to speak to journalists about press freedom.

“It’s like talking about media freedom, press freedom. You are going to bring practitioners in that field, either in academics or in the newsroom. But to just go and bring somebody from nowhere to come and entertain you, there are problems with that,” he said.

Otse had, during the conference panel, alleged that some police officers manning checkpoints on major highways identify wealthy travellers and pass information about their identities and movements to kidnappers, thereby facilitating abductions for ransom.

The Nigeria Police Force subsequently rejected the allegation as unsubstantiated and challenged Otse to provide evidence to support his claim.

The Force said any credible information provided by Otse would be taken seriously and investigated.

Falana’s comments have added to the debate surrounding the NBA’s decision to feature the social media personality at its annual conference, with the invitation drawing both criticism and support.