The National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons has confirmed that rapper Speed Darlington remains on its security watchlist amid allegations of s3xual activity with a minor
NAPTIP revealed on Monday that Darlington, whose real name is Darlington Okoye, was added to the watchlist after repeatedly ignoring invitations to appear before investigators in Abuja.
Speaking at a press conference marking the 2025 edition of the 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence, the agency’s Director of Legal and Prosecution, Mrs Ijeoma Amugo, said the rapper is under investigation for a May 2024 Instagram live video in which he allegedly claimed to have had sexual relations with a 15-year-old girl.
Amugo added that instead of cooperating with the investigation, Speed Darlington took to social media to attack the agency and refused to submit to questioning.
“What he did was to preemptively try to intimidate us by going to social media to say that he wouldn’t come and that he wouldn’t respond to us, claiming we were violating his human rights. We tried our best to physically locate him because you have to locate the suspect before justice can be served,” she said.
Efforts to trace the rapper to known addresses proved unsuccessful, with intelligence suggesting he had left the country.
“Our last information is that he’s outside Nigeria. We’ve placed him on watchlist. The moment he steps back into the country, we’ll pick up the investigation. As I speak to you, the last report we have is that he’s outside the country and we have not heard from him. Anytime he enters Nigeria, NAPTIP will continue the investigation from where we stopped. That is the status of the case for now,” Amugo stated.
Earlier reports from July indicated that NAPTIP had placed Speed Darlington on an international watchlist with a N50 million bounty after the expiration of the wanted status grace period.
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