Social media activist Martins Vincent Otse, popularly known as VeryDarkMan has apologised to members of the armed forces, police, customs, and immigration services following the controversial statements he made at the 66th Annual NBA Conference.
In a video shared on Friday, Otse stated that he reflected on his earlier remarks and recognized that he had been unfair to dedicated security personnel who put their lives on the line to safeguard the nation.
The activist had previously labeled military, police, immigration, and customs personnel as “unknown gunmen” while addressing national security challenges during the conference in Port Harcourt, Rivers State.
Otse clarified in the Friday broadcast that his comments were not intended to accuse the entire security apparatus of criminal involvement.
He explained that his primary concern lay with troops confronting Boko Haram and other security threats in the field.
Otse noted that his intention was to expose instances of alleged corruption and sabotage involving specific personnel within security agencies.
“My speech was entirely to talk about the bad eggs in our security operative, our security forces, is to put attention on the bad eggs, so that the leaders in these security settings will look inward and to see that sometimes information are being leaked and their own people are sabotaging them,” he said.
However, he conceded that his presentation created the perception that he was making sweeping generalizations.
Backstory…
VeryDarkMan’s apology comes after his appearance at the recently concluded NBA Conference in Port Harcourt, where he spoke during a session on insecurity in Nigeria. His participation had already generated debate because the NBA had invited a social media activist to contribute to discussions at one of the country’s biggest gatherings of legal professionals.
During the session, VDM made a sweeping allegation about Nigeria’s security architecture. He described the military, police, immigration and customs personnel as “unknown gunmen” while arguing that some people within the security system allegedly provide information or support that enables criminal activities.
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