Controversial singer Darlington ‘Speed Darlington’ Okoye has taken legal action against the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP), accusing the agency of violating his fundamental human rights.
PREMIUM TIMES reported that NAPTIP declared the singer wanted after he failed to honour two separate invitations.
These were issued after Speed Darlington admitted during an Instagram Live session that he engaged in sexual relations with a 15-year-old girl.
Reacting to the agency’s declaration, the singer maintained that he had not committed any offence.
He demanded that NAPTIP retract the ‘wanted’ notice and pay him N2.5 million in damages before he would consider responding to their summons.
Speed Darlington described the agency’s action as unlawful in a lawsuit filed at the Federal High Court in Abuja, which this newspaper obtained.
He argued that declaring him wanted without first obtaining an order from a court of competent jurisdiction amounted to a breach of due process.
Lawsuit
The case was filed under suit number FHC/ABJ/CS/812/2023.
The lawsuit read: “A declaration that the very act of declaring the applicant wanted with the caption wanted by NAPTIP via publications made by the respondents on all its social media handles and by pasting on or about the 27th day of June, 2025 and subsequent publications and circulation in many newspapers in both print and electronic edition without any prior order or leave of a court of competent jurisdiction to that effect is unlawful, illegal, wrongful, ultra vires, unconstitutional.
“And constitutes a flagrant violation of the fundamental rights of the applicant to personal liberty, private and family life, freedom of movement and right not to be subjected to inhuman treatment and degrading treatment as guaranteed under Section 34, 37, 41 and 46 of the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (As amended) and Articles 2, 3(1) & (2), 4, 5, 6, 7, and12 (1) of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights (Ratification and Enforcement) Act 2004.”
Requests
However, Speed Darlington approached the court to challenge NAPTIP’s decision to declare him wanted.
He also requested an order compelling the agency to issue a formal written apology for what he described as a blatant violation of his fundamental rights.
Additionally, he demanded N2 billion in punitive damages and a further N1 billion in general damages.
“An order of perpetual injunction restraining the respondents, whether by itself, its agents, servants, officers, employees, privies, operatives and any agent or organization acting on its instruction or anyone acting in any manner howsoever, from enforcing, executing or carrying into effect the directive and or instruction in the respondents’ publication of 27th June, 2025 and subsequently published and circulated in many newspapers in both print and online edition with the title wanted by NAPTIP, wherein the applicant was declared wanted by publishing his photograph and name.
“An award of two billion naira punitive damages against the respondents jointly and severally for the wrongful publication of the photograph and name of the applicant, with a fifty-million-naira bounty on him. An award of one billion naira general damages against the respondents jointly and severally for the wrongful publication of the photograph and name of the applicant with a fifty-million-naira bounty on him”, the lawsuit stated.
He further requested that the court impose an interest rate of five per cent per month on the judgment sum until it is fully settled.
In addition, he asked the court to grant a perpetual injunction restraining the agency and its affiliates from acting on the declaration that listed him as wanted.
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NAPTIP reacts
Reacting to Speed Darlington’s N3 billion defamation lawsuit, the Press Officer of the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP), Vincent Adekoya, told this newspaper that the agency does not know any such legal action.
“I also read it online as you did, but the agency is not aware of any such lawsuits and can’t respond to what it’s unaware of.”
When asked about the agency’s next move, he said, “I have no comment on your question.”
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