Social media activist VeryDarkMan, real name Martins Vincent Otse, has announced plans to launch a political party named “Ratel” and urged Nigerians to prepare to back it at the polls.
He made the disclosure in a video circulated by Yabaleft Online on X while giving supporters an update on his N290 million secondary school project in Odiokwu, Ahoada West, Rivers State.
While touring the classrooms, clinic and football field built on the site, VeryDarkMan declared, “Very soon, the Ratel political party is coming, so be ready to vote for us.”
He said the party would outperform any government project, pointing to what he had achieved with donated funds alone as reason enough for Nigerians to back it at the polls.
VeryDarkMan said N290 million had gone into the school project so far and insisted every naira was properly documented.
He challenged the government to point to a public school that could match its standard. “Credibility, you cannot buy it with money,” he said.
He also credited singer Burna Boy with funding part of the project.
The party announcement builds on months of political signalling from VeryDarkMan and his followers, who call themselves the Ratel Movement.
The group started in November 2025 as a civic initiative focused on monthly community sanitation exercises, with members cleaning public schools and clearing drainages in all 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory on the last Saturday of every month.
In July 2026, the Oluwo of Iwo, Oba Abdulrosheed Akanbi, hosted VeryDarkMan at his palace in Osun State and urged the Ratel Movement to move from online activism into active politics.
Responding to the monarch, VeryDarkMan said, “We will start from the local government level,” citing President Bola Tinubu’s local government autonomy policy as an opening for grassroots groups.
VeryDarkMan had also hardened his stance against the current administration after returning to Nigeria from China in June 2026.
Addressing supporters who welcomed him back, he declared that “Ratel don land” and said, “Tinubu is a failure and should not come back in 2027.”
Otse built his public profile from 2022 through online exposés and commentary on celebrities, public disputes and allegations against high-profile Nigerians.
His activitives that has made him one of the country’s most talked-about internet personalities and drawn both a large following and sustained criticism over his methods.
Otse’s activism has repeatedly put him at odds with the law.
He was arraigned at the Federal High Court in Abuja in 2024 on five counts of cyberstalking over allegations of online harassment linked to the Nigeria Police Force and two Nollywood actresses.
In May 2025, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission arrested him in Abuja over cyberstalking petitions, an operation that drew public backlash and an online campaign for his release.
He has also faced defamation suits, including a 1 billion naira claim from crossdresser Bobrisky over allegations Otse made in a leaked audio recording.
Reactions to the political party announcement have been mixed on social media. Some users urged critics of VeryDarkMan to match his community projects instead of only criticising him.
Others accused him of contradicting himself, noting that he had previously described Nigerian political parties as corrupt vehicles that Nigerians should reject.
