“Onanuga should apologise, face investigation” – Lawyer defends VeryDarkMan over fake AI video

Abubakar Marshal, a human rights lawyer, has asked Bayo Onanuga, special adviser to President Bola Tinubu on information and strategy, to apologise and submit himself for investigation over comments made about Martins Vincent Otse, the social media personality known as VeryDarkMan (VDM).

In a statement issued on May 28, Marshal described Onanuga’s May 27 post on X as false, provocative and unbecoming of a public official.

He said it was disappointing that Onanuga, whom he described as a former pro-democracy activist and journalist, had allegedly abandoned the principles he once fought for.

Marshal alleged that Onanuga’s comments were an attack on the rights of Nigerians to criticise government policies and demand political change.

“Now that the inaccuracy and falsity of Mr Bayo’s allegations has been established, we submit without any sense of equivocation that the right of Nigerians to criticize, condemn, challenge any obnoxious government policy, and the right to demand for a change of government; including the right to assert that, which Mr Bayo and his paymasters find offensive and discomforting must be re-asserted and commitment to its protection re-affirmed by the Presidency he has sheepishly embarrassed with his provocative assault against our collective national interest,” he said.

The lawyer cited legal authorities, including the cases of Redmond-Bate v DPP, IGP v ANPP and Arthur Nwankwo v The State, in support of his argument that freedom of expression must be protected.

“Free speech includes not only the inoffensive but the irritating, the contentious, the eccentric, the heretical, the unwelcome and the provocative provided it does not tend to provoke violence. Freedom only to speak inoffensively is not worth having,” he quoted from the judgment in Redmond-Bate v DPP.

Marshal said the presidency should publicly distance itself from Onanuga’s comments and impose sanctions if necessary.

“So therefore, Mr Bayo must face the consequences of circulating and authenticating falsehood, spread through electronic means against the very government and people he was employed to defend,” he said.

He added that Onanuga’s comments should be examined under the Cybercrimes Act, adding that VDM reserves the right to seek civil remedies over the matter.

“The Presidency must distance itself from the embarrassing declarations of Mr Bayo Onanuga and met out the appropriate sanction against a state official that deliberately misinformed the public and caused the government gargantuan embarrassment.

“This is without prejudice to the right of our Mr Martins Vincent Otse (VDM) to seek appropriate civil redress forthwith,” he noted.