On May 2, 2025, Nigerian social media influencer Martins Vincent Otse, widely known as VeryDarkMan, was arrested in Abuja by officers of the Nigeria Police Force. The arrest followed public complaints he made regarding alleged unauthorized debits from his mother's GTBank account.
According to his legal counsel, Barrister Deji Adeyanju, the arrest was initiated by GTBank after VeryDarkMan raised concerns about multiple deductions labeled as loan repayments, which his mother purportedly never took. The influencer had visited a GTBank branch in Abuja to seek explanations and obtain account statements detailing the debits.
This incident is not isolated. In April 2025, another GTBank customer, Ariyo Ahmed Adewale, alleged that the bank orchestrated his arrest after he protested unauthorized transactions exceeding ₦2 million from his account. Adewale claimed the transactions were linked to the online shopping platform Jumia, a service he asserts he has never used.
GTBank has previously addressed concerns over misleading social media posts. In February 2023, the bank refuted claims of disbursing ₦500 million in new Naira notes to a presidential candidate, labeling the allegations as false and malicious.
The arrest of VeryDarkMan has sparked discussions about the balance between corporate responses to public criticism and individuals' rights to express grievances. As the situation develops, it underscores the complexities surrounding customer-bank relationships and the avenues available for dispute resolution.