ABUJA, Nigeria — Social media influencer and activist Martins Vincent Otse, widely known as VeryDarkMan, on Friday, June 26, 2026, said he was questioned for hours by the Department of State Services, DSS.
The questioning followed a Federal High Court judge’s order for an inquiry into the alleged leak of a protected video exhibit from an ongoing coup trial.
The VeryDarkMan DSS interrogation followed a directive by Justice Joyce Abdulmalik of the Federal High Court in Abuja, who ordered security authorities to investigate how a restricted audio-visual recording from the proceedings came to be circulated on social media.
The recording is part of the prosecution’s case against six men accused of involvement in an alleged failed 2024 plot to overthrow the administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
In court, Rotimi Oyedepo, the Director of Public Prosecutions of the Federation and a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, told Abdulmalik that a video showing confidential interrogation sessions of the defendants had appeared on Otse’s social media platforms.
Oyedepo said the material had attracted thousands of views online and argued that its circulation raised serious concerns about compliance with witness protection measures ordered by the court.
View this post on Instagram
Court Orders Security Probe
The issue came before the court during proceedings on June 23 and 24, 2026, when Oyedepo asked the judge to direct an investigation into how the material left official custody.
According to the prosecution, the recording was a protected exhibit in the case and should not have been made available to the public.
Oyedepo urged the court to determine whether the leak came from the judiciary, the Ministry of Justice or another source with access to the file.
Otse was said to have been present among members of the public in the courtroom when the matter was raised. He was later questioned by the DSS.
Confirming his release in the early hours of Thursday, June 25, 2026, Otse said he had been interrogated at the DSS headquarters over the video he posted.
“I got home around 2 a.m. after spending hours at the DSS office, where I was interrogated and investigated over a video I posted,” VeryDarkMan stated.
“I was asked to explain how I obtained the video, and I told them the whole truth.”
Otse Denies Role in Initial Leak
According to the account provided in the reporting notes, Otse denied any involvement in extracting the video from official records or leaking it from court custody.
He told investigators that his public phone numbers and social media channels are accessible to anonymous senders, including tipsters and members of the public who regularly send him materials.
He also said his Samsung phone automatically downloads incoming media files into his gallery under its default settings, even when the identity of the sender is unknown to him.
Otse maintained that he did not create, retrieve or remove the recording from court or government databases.
Trial Continues Separately
The underlying case involves six defendants, including Sheikh Sani Abdulkadir, who are facing charges linked to the alleged coup plot.
The prosecution recently concluded its case in a trial-within-trial ordered after defence lawyers challenged the admissibility of the defendants’ confessional statements. The lawyers argued that the statements were obtained through torture and coercion.
A military witness, identified in court by the protective pseudonym DDD, rejected the allegations.
The witness said the defendants entered the interrogation room freely and argued that, if their feet had been chained as claimed, the sound would have been audible in the audio-visual recordings.
The defence teams have denied leaking the exhibits to the media.
Abdulmalik said the DSS investigation into the leaked video would proceed as a separate matter while the main trial continues.
The court has fixed July 20, 2026, to rule on pending bail applications filed by the defendants.
