Human rights lawyer Deji Adeyanju has confirmed that social media activist, Vincent Martin Otse popularly known as VervDarkMan was arrested by police officers at a Guaranty Trust Bank (GTB) branch in Abuja.
Gatekeepers News reports that Adeyanju confirmed the incident in a post on X on Friday, following reports from Koko Pee, a close associate of VDM, who raised concerns about his sudden disappearance after visiting the bank with his mother.
Before the arrest, VDM had taken to social media to reveal that he had accompanied his mother to GTBank to investigate a series of unauthorized withdrawals from her account.
He alleged that the deductions were labeled as loan repayments despite his mother never taking any loans.
The self-acclaimed activist also shared the purported screenshots showing the debit alerts.
VDM wrote, “Myself and my mom just arrived @gtbank to get an explanation for the constant debit from her account from gt bank in the name of loan repayments that she never took, in this year alone see the amount of time she has been debited with different amounts we have requested her bank statements.”
“So we know when the debiting started so far in this year alone there have been more than 7 debits on loan repayments, GT BANK STAFF ARE COOPERATING, hopefully we know why they keep doing this.”
According to Adeyanju, VDM was arrested alongside a friend named C Park, while his mother was left behind.
The lawyer condemned the arrest, stating that demanding accountability from a bank should not be criminalised.
He wrote, “VDM arrested by the police at GTB. Spoke to them before he was arrested. This is absolutely unacceptable. Demanding accountability is not a crime.”
“We will sue GTB and the security agencies responsible for the arrest of VDM if he’s not released with immediate effect.”
Subsequently, Adeyanju revealed that VDM had been and lawyers were working to secure his release.
He wrote, “We’ve found VDM, and our legal team is currently with him.”
