*Says He Will Not Honour “Malicious” Police Invitation to Lagos, Alleges It Is a Trap to Seize His Phone and Delete Evidence
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Social media influencer and accountability campaigner Martins Vincent Otse, popularly known as VeryDarkMan or VDM, has explained why he declined a Nigeria Police Force invitation, describing it as “malicious” and alleging that it was designed to lure him from Abuja to Lagos in order to seize his phone and destroy evidence relating to two murder cases in which he says an innocent man has been wrongly implicated.
He spoke on Arise 360 with Ken and Shigar in a wide-ranging interview covering his methods, his critics, his apology over the aircraft altercation with Mr Jollof, and his views on governance.
Asked what pushed him into activism, VDM rejected the description outright.
“I don’t like my name being put in the same sentence as activism or being an activist. In Nigeria, what they see activism as is that every problem we have is politically influenced, is a government problem, and I don’t believe that,” he stated.
“I believe that Nigerians themselves have a problem, and government is a reflection of what the people are. Let’s use traffic as an example. The red says stop, the green says you go. But in Nigeria, when it says red, people are still trying to beat the traffic, and next thing everybody is locked up in a place. These little laws the government have already made them, but the people themselves have a problem,” VDM said.
“When you scam somebody, somebody pays a vendor money to deliver something and the person does not deliver, that’s not the government. That’s the people’s problem,” he stated.
“So I don’t like the whole activism thing. I would say I am an online police. I hold people accountable. I hold the government accountable when I can, because of course I have the platform, and people do respect my platform. When I call them out, so far so good, I’ve been able to recover quite a lot of money, billions of naira actually. So I’ll stick with online police instead of activism,” VDM said.
Asked what accountability means to him, whether punishment, transparency or apology, he offered a plain definition.
“Accountability is just simple, from the word account. You have to give account of what you are responsible for. If they put you in charge of XYZ, when it’s time for you to give an account for XYZ, don’t give us Z. Where is X and Y?” he stated.
“If you are meant to build a school, build the school. If you are meant to work on our roads, you should work on our roads. Give an account of what you are responsible for, the position you are put in,” VDM said.
“I like to hold everybody accountable because it’s our responsibility to be patriotic and to build the nation. So when I see people not being patriotic enough to build the nation, I try to hold you accountable. That’s why I put my mouth in everybody’s business, because everybody’s business is my business,” he stated.
Asked whether there was a single moment when he realised the system was broken and that he personally had to act, VDM pointed to police brutality and to unmet obligations.
“A lot of times, police brutality, and what we are owed. We are not getting what we are owed, because the government owes us a lot. Security, right now, that’s the top of the list. We don’t have security. People can no longer go to their farms. People can no longer do business. A lot of people are suffering. A lot of people are starving,” he stated.
“We are not even supposed to be using aeroplanes to go to different locations when we have roads. People cannot afford planes. Fix our roads. These are the reasons why people like us have decided that, you know what, we go just talk,” VDM said.
On the Ratel Movement and criticism of his confrontational style, VDM defended his methods while insisting they remain lawful.
“It’s not a conventional method, because we’ve tried to be respectful with our methods over the years, to say, ‘Oh please, oh please.’ But if you look at the animal called ratel, the animal does not beg for anything. It’s an aggressive animal. It does not care how big you are. It does not care if it’s a lion, it attacks,” he stated.
“For me to want the kind of change I want, we have to not follow the normal method. However, we will not be breaking the law while doing what we do. Some people think that when you approach things some other way, it means that you are breaking the law. But they don’t know that you are breaking their emotions and not the law. And we don’t care about people’s emotions. We just want Nigeria to work, and that’s what we represent,” VDM said.
Asked whether he was proud of his handling of the confrontation with Mr Jollof aboard an aircraft, VDM offered an unqualified apology.
“Honestly, the whole incident of me and Mr Jollof on the plane was very, very irresponsible, from me and from him. Even though, to be very honest, and I swear this on God, I was actually defending myself, because he was the one that threw a punch. He punched me twice before I reacted,” he stated.
“Even when I reacted, to be very honest, I’m not proud of that moment, and I would never do that again, and I will not encourage anybody to take the law into their hands like that, especially endangering the other passengers on the plane,” VDM said.
“So I’ll use this opportunity to apologise to Nigerians and everybody that believes in VeryDarkMan. I’m sorry for that moment. It will never happen again,” he stated.
The interviewer responded that the apology was “accepted on behalf of Nigerians.”
Put to him that declining a police invitation was a blatant disregard of the very law he claims to uphold, VDM set out his reasons.
“There’s a reason why I said I was not going to honour the invitation in Lagos, and it is simply because I think the invitation is malicious,” he stated.
“Does it make sense that I am calling you out that you have compromised a case by pinning murder on an innocent man, and then next thing I’m getting an invite from Lagos? Meanwhile I live in Abuja, and in Abuja where I live is the headquarters of the NPF NCCC, that is headed by an AIG. And you’re calling me to Lagos to come and answer a question where I can answer here in Abuja. The headquarters of police is here in Abuja,” VDM said.
“So I think it’s just malicious, and then they’re looking for a way to trap me, or maybe take my phone and delete evidence or whatever thing they plan to do. So whatever thing they want to do, they should do it here,” he stated.
VDM then set out in detail the two matters he says lie behind the invitation.
“The first person’s name is Sheriff Salami. He was killed in April 2023. This guy Sheriff Salami attended a burial at Moshalashi Road around the island. As he was coming out, some persons shot him, the bullet didn’t penetrate him. Then they chased him into a house and then they used cutlasses on him,” he stated.
He said a second person was killed in the same manner in 2024.
“The police in 2026 arrested two suspects. The first person was arrested on the 6th of January 2026 and the second person was arrested on 24th January 2026. There’s a video that came out after the arrest, and in this video these people confess that they killed Sheriff Salami,” VDM said.
According to his account, the suspects said the killing arose from a confraternity rivalry, that Sheriff Salami belonged to a different fraternity from theirs, that he had previously killed one of their members, and that they encountered him in their territory.
“They confessed. One month later, surprisingly, the police brought them out again. And then came another video. And in this video, the police were asking them questions. And then next thing, the police said, ‘Ahmed, who did Ahmed send to go and kill this person?’ They led the suspects on. Even the suspects were looking confused. At some point in the interrogation, one of them said, ‘Which Ahmed are you talking about?’ The police then had to tell them that Ahmed Airro,” VDM stated.
“So they were the ones that led these guys. Then they said it’s a guy called Bode. That a guy called Bode was sent to contract them to kill Sheriff Salami. And then the police said, ‘Where is Bode?’ They said Bode is in Germany,” he said.
VDM posed the question he says the police have not answered.
“You said the link to Ahmed, that you are accusing Ahmed, you are arresting Ahmed because Ahmed contracted somebody to contract these people to kill Sheriff Salami. This person’s name is Bode. Where is this Bode? Have you created the link between Bode and Ahmed, or you just concluded based off of what those people said?” he asked.
VDM said that when the suspect was eventually arrested, a petition was written to the Inspector-General alleging that a Commissioner of Police had compromised the case, and that the IG directed Panti to carry out a fresh investigation.
“The result from the investigation is actually mind-blowing. The result of the investigation says that Ahmed does not know these guys. They’ve gone through their phone. He doesn’t know them. And it clearly says also that this Bode that these people are talking about, we don’t know them, we cannot identify this Bode. So therefore Ahmed does not even have a case to answer based on what is here. But they are still insisting and holding him,” VDM stated.
On the second death, VDM said the suspects denied all knowledge.
“At every given opportunity, they denied knowing anything about Prince Adamo. They denied it 100 per cent. Even the police, in the report, stated that these suspects don’t know anything about Prince. But this same Prince was pinned on Ahmed, that Ahmed was the one that did it, when the report clearly stated that the police did not do an investigation,” he stated.
VDM gave his account of the killing: that Prince Adamo was at his farm in April 2024 when he began receiving repeated calls from his elder brother summoning him to the palace on the instruction of their father; that he had sent a man called Monday to buy him food but abandoned the meal because the calls kept coming; and that as he was going home, a white Suzuki hit him from behind, and when he came down to inspect the damage he was shot and then finished with a machete.
“They took the dead body and deposited it at the morgue. They also deposited the phone and gave the phone to the police for investigation. His brother who called him to come out went to the morgue and collected the body and said, ‘See, we don’t need you to do an autopsy.’ This is an affidavit. He said we don’t need you to do an investigation,” VDM stated.
He alleged that the failure to investigate indicated that the officer handling the matter had been compromised.
Asked what he would say if given the opportunity to advise President Bola Tinubu, VDM offered a single prescription.
“In short, just make sure the local government is working. If the local government works, the country is good. Focus on the local government. Make sure they get direct allocation and we are good,” he stated.
“Even the security of this country will get better, because in the local government you know everybody in your community. The local government chairman knows the people that come to vote. So if you can get close to your local government, put money in the local government, give them direct allocation, Nigeria will turn around for good,” VDM said.
“So if I have the opportunity to advise him, I’ll tell them, President, focus on the local government. Focus there. Put your focus there,” he stated.
Asked at the outset what those closest to him would say had changed over the last four years, VDM identified a change of method rather than of purpose.
“Maybe the way I fight and the way I handle things. Before, I used to be very, very hyper, but now I take my time to really understand what I want to talk about before I talk about it. That’s all that I’ve changed, and I think people believe me more because of what they have seen. So it’s just little changes here and there, nothing really much,” he stated.
The allegations concerning the conduct of the investigations, the compromise of officers and the innocence of the person named are the assertions of the interviewee. The Nigeria Police Force has not responded to them in this interview, and none has been tested in any court.
The interview was conducted on Arise 360.
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