Nedu serves VeryDarkMan with notice of N500m lawsuit for ‘defamation’

Nedu, the on-air personality (OAP), has served social media critic VeryDarkMan (VDM) with a pre-action notice following for alleged defamation.

The controversy began when DeeOne, a reality star and comedian, alleged on the Honest Bunch podcast that VDM had intimate relationships with men.

VDM responded by accusing Nedu of orchestrating the allegations and leaking private conversations between them.

The social media critic also accused Nedu of sexual exploitation, stating that he had confided in Nedu about women he had allegedly slept with.

This led to Nedu stepping down as one of the podcast’s hosts.

VDM further accused the Nedu Scholarship Foundation (NDSCHF) of defrauding a non-governmental organization (NGO) that approached the OAP for a partnership.

In a letter dated February 24, Nedu’s counsel claimed that VDM posted a video on his social media pages “which contained a host of defamatory, false and disparaging attacks and rhetorics against our clients”.

The letter referenced the NGO issue, stating that Nedu’s team filed a police petition. It said the “police investigation found no legitimate case against Nedu, and the matter did not progress to court”.

Nedu’s counsel demanded that VDM retract all videos involving the media personality within 24 hours, publish a public apology, and pay N500 million in damages. The letter said failure to comply will result in further legal action.

“The rest of the video included you uttering similar false narratives and defamatory remarks that you stated in the previous video. Same was done in the other 2 videos you have posted relating to my Client and this Fraud issue,” the letter reads.

“Your continuous and relentless attempts to defame Nedu and Tokindrumz and tarnish their good and respected name are both unwarranted and damaging. Let it be clearly stated: Our Clients did not commit fraud against MSBM.

“In view of the above stated facts with supporting documents, we have instructions to solicit for the following options: a retraction of every video involving Nedu on every one of your platforms within 24 hours of receiving this notice.

“A public apology, published on every one of your platforms within 24 hours of receiving this notice and the sum of N500,000,000 (Five Hundred Million Naira) for damage to reputation caused.

“Take notice, where you render settlement inevitable, we have further instructions to seek the following reliefs by filing an action against you.

“While you are free to exercise your constitutionally guaranteed fundamental right to expression, said right should be used justly and carefully. You are only allowed to disseminate credible and factual information and not baseless accusations made to damage the reputation of any citizen. We hope that you address the issues raised.”