Again, Federal High Court mandates release of Speed Darlington from jail

In a new ruling on Monday, January 6, 2025, Justice M.S. Liman of the Federal High Court, Abuja ordered Speed Darlington’s release from detention.

The Justice mandated the Inspector General of Police and the Nigerian Police Force to charge Akpi to court within 48 hours or release him unconditionally.

This new ruling comes two weeks after the controversial singer was granted bail by the court after spending nearly a month behind bars.

The Nigerian Police Force has, however, failed to comply with the directive from the court.

Hence, the singer and performer, born Darlington Okoye, is still in custody as of the time of this report.

Nevertheless, the ruling of Justice Liman on Monday maintains that the singer’s prolonged detention is a violation of his fundamental rights to dignity, liberty, and freedom of expression under Chapter IV of the Nigerian Constitution.

The court reiterated, “The applicant is to be charged to court within 48 hours or released unconditionally before the hearing of the substantive application.”

Reacting to this development, Darlington’s legal team including defence counsel Stanley Alieke and Human Rights Lawyer, Deji Adeyanju, have expressed their dissatisfaction with the non compliance from the Nigerian Police Force.

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Taking to his Instagram page, Alieke bemoaned the lawlessness exhibited by the Force. In his words,

The respite from this whole Akpi brouhaha is that due to the public attention it has garnered, it has shone a light on how autocratic the Nigerian Police Force is and how they flagrantly disobey court rulings once they are sentimentally attached to a case….

When some of us speak against the lawlessness in the Nigerian Police Force, people feel we have personal grievances against them; no, I, personally have a lot of senior police officers as friends and clients but we can’t achieve a near-perfect society with this kind of police force.

On his part, Adeyanju said,

The Nigerian Police have refused to release Speed Darlington, a.k.a. Akpi, despite the explicit order of the Federal High Court to do so. This is the highest form of disrespect to the judiciary.