The National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons has maintained that controversial rapper, Speed Darlington, remains on its security watchlist over allegations of sexual activity with a minor.

NAPTIP disclosed on Monday that the artiste, born Darlington Okoye, was placed on the watchlist after he repeatedly ignored invitations to appear before investigators in Abuja.

According to Leadership, the agency’s Director of Legal and Prosecution, Mrs Ijeoma Amugo, while responding to questions at a press conference to flag off the 2025 edition of the 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence in Abuja, stated that Speed Darlington was being investigated over a May 2024 Instagram live video in which he allegedly claimed to have had sexual relations with a 15-year-old girl.

Rather than cooperate with investigators, Amugo said the rapper took to social media to attack the agency and declared that he would not 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,” Amugo stated.

She added that efforts to track down the rapper at known addresses had proved unsuccessful, with intelligence reports indicating 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. We have placed him on watchlist. Anytime he enters Nigeria, NAPTIP will continue the investigation from where we stopped. That is the status of the case for now,” she said.