Martin “VeryDarkMan” Otse, a controversial Nigerian social critic, was taken into the custody of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on Friday.

Deji Adeyanju, legal counsel to VeryDarkMan, in a tweet, initially accused the police of arresting his client at a GTbank branch in Abuja, where he went to complain about suspicious debits from his mother’s account.

“Just in: VDM arrested by the police at GTB. Spoke to them before he was arrested. This is absolutely unacceptable. Demanding accountability is not a crime,” Mr Adeyanju wrote on X without providing further details on why VDM was arrested.

However, hours after his posts accusing the police, the lawyer said the social critic, alongside his friend, Steven Avuara, was “accosted at gunpoint a few metres outside the bank’s premises, beaten and blindfolded by some armed men wearing black uniforms.”

He said VeryDarkMan was later detained by the EFCC operatives from the commission’s Special Duty Committee (SDC) Unit 4 after being apprehended at GTB’s exit door at Garki, Area 3, Abuja.

“Earlier today, May 2, 2025, our attention was drawn to the fact that our clients, Mr Martins Vincent Otse (AKA Very Dark Black Man) and Mr Steven Avuara (AKA C-PACK), were arrested by officers of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), immediately after they exited Guaranty Trust Bank (GTB) Ltd’s premises at Garki, Area 3, Abuja,” he said in statement.

“We were further informed by Mr Avuara that they were transported to the EFCC’s headquarters at Jabi, Abuja. At the time of this statement, we are unable to confirm the whereabouts of Mrs Otse.

He said that when his legal team asked to see VeryDarkMan at the EFCC custody, the operatives “informed that Mr Martins Otse declined to see anybody.”

Mr Adeyanju also claimed that the anti-graft agency failed to disclose the reasons for detaining his client despite several requests, but his team were shown an arrest warrant.

When contacted by Peoples Gazette, the spokesperson for the EFCC, Dele Oyewale, said VeryDarkMan was taken into custody following petitions against him.

“We have some petitions against him that we are working on. He has some issues with us,” said Mr Oyewale. “I’m not confirming the arrest anyway; a couple of persons sent petitions to us against him.”

Asked to identify the petitioners, Mr Oyewale said, “Every petition is a discreet thing; it is an operational thing, not what we discuss on the pages of the newspaper.

“Whether he is arrested or not arrested, I’m not confirming that. We have ongoing investigations about him (VDM).”

The arrest came days after VeryDarkMan called GTbank out about suspicious debits from his mother’s account.

He tweeted, “We have requested her bank statements, so we know when the debiting started. So far, in this year alone, there have been more than seven debits on loan repayments. GTBank staff are cooperating—hopefully, we’ll know why they keep doing this.”