Popular social media activist, Martins Vincent Otse, popularly known as VeryDarkMan (VDM), on Tuesday, underwent a second day of interrogation by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
Sources close to the commission revealed that the interrogation session, which lasted several hours, focused on Otse’s recent public allegations accusing the EFCC of institutional corruption.
VDM had in several social media posts accused the anti-graft agency of lacking transparency and integrity in its operations.
His legal counsel, Barrister Marvin Omorogbe from the law firm of Deji Adeyanju, was present throughout the interrogation, which reportedly ran from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Despite efforts by his legal team to secure his release, Otse remained in custody as of Tuesday evening.
“We are still working on securing his bail,” Adeyanju told SaharaReporters around 5:40 p.m., confirming that his client was yet to be released.
KeepLoss reports that in a statement released on Tuesday, the EFCC confirmed VDM’s arrest, stressing that it was based on multiple petitions involving alleged financial crimes and not related to his outspoken criticism of the commission.
The commission explained that it had obtained a valid remand order for his detention and that the activist had ignored multiple invitations for questioning.
“The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, in the exercise of its mandate… invited Martins Innocent Otse owing to a series of petitions bordering on sundry issues of alleged financial crimes raised against him,” the statement read.
The EFCC further stated: “He refused to show up in spite of several invitations sent to him through his known addresses and medium of communication… His arrest was not informed by his public attacks on the Commission, even though such conduct is condemnable.”
