September 25, (THEWILL) – Nigerian rapper and actor, Folarin Falana, aka Falz, has issued self-acclaimed activist, Martins Otse, aka VeryDarkMan, a 24-hour ultimatum to withdraw his false allegations against him.
Otse had alleged that Falz aided popular cross-dresser, Idris Okuneye, aka Bobrisky, in the discharge of the money laundering charge levelled against him by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
Otse also claimed that Falz and his father, human rights activist, Femi Falana SAN, helped Bobrisky avert his sentencing for the money laundering charge.
He also claimed that Bobrisky revealed that some unnamed EFCC officers collected N15 million from him to drop the money laundering charges against him and that a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) and his son assisted in getting the charges dropped and keeping him out of prison.
Although no names were mentioned. Otse claims that it was Falz and his father who were behind the ordeal.
The Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Ola Olukoyede, has since ordered an immediate investigation into bribery allegations made against some officers of the commission by Bobrisky in a viral audio released on September 24 by Otse.
In the audio, Bobrisky told an unidentified person in a phone conversation that he paid some unnamed officials of the commission the sum of N15 million for them to drop money laundering charges against him.
Recall that the Commission had filed six charges bordering on Naira abuse and money laundering against Bobrisky in April. While four of the charges bordered on Naira abuse, two others bordered on money laundering.
However, when he was arraigned in court, the money laundering charges were dropped while he was arraigned on a four-count charge bordering on abuse of the Naira.
He was later sentenced to six months in prison on April 12 after he was found guilty.
In the purported audio conversation, Bobrisky also claimed he was placed in a private apartment close to the correctional facility after a godfather of his made a call to the boss of the Nigeria Prisons Service for him to not step foot into the correctional facility as directed by the court that convicted him.
In a swift reaction to the allegation against the EFCC operatives, the representative of the Commission, Dele Oyewale, in a statement, said the Commission’s boss has constituted a team of investigators to critically look into the allegations.