THE senator representing Delta North Senatorial District, Ned Nwoko, and his estranged wife, Regina Daniels, have engaged in a heated exchange as their marital crisis deepens, amid allegations of drug use and harassment.
In response to Daniels’ persistent calls for justice and the release of her elder brother, allegedly detained on Nwoko’s order, from detention, the senator took to his X handle on Saturday, accusing Sammy, Daniels’ brother, of harassing his children and domestic staff.
He claimed that he had transferred approximately N125 million to Regina’s mother over the past two years and he had financed Sammy’s last two years at the University of Ekpoma, covering expenses for musical instruments and an apartment in Abuja.
“These videos show Sammy, Regina’s brother, repeatedly coming to my home and harassing my children and domestic staff, especially whenever I was not around. His visits were often aggressive and disruptive,” he wrote.
The ICIR reports that this development stemmed from the duo’s marital crisis that surfaced in a viral video showing Daniels, a Nollywood actress, in a confrontation at her marital home on October 18, accusing the senator of domestic violence.
In reaction to the video, Nwoko took to his social media handle accusing his wife of violence against domestic staff and long-term drug abuse. He said the drugs had affected her health.
Nigerians flooded social media with divided opinions. Some accused Nwoko of using drug allegations to divert attention from domestic-violence claims. Others urged both parties to seek professional help and avert the stigma the public fights could cause their children, while others advised the government to investigate them for domestic violence and drug-related offences.
Days later, the actress’s brother, Sammy, was arrested in Lagos, transferred to Abuja, arraigned in court, and remanded pending the fulfillment of bail conditions.
Amid the public dispute, Regina celebrated the reconciliation of her estranged parents, noting that her mother and father, long separated, reunited following her personal and family crisis, particularly her brother’s arrest.
In a series of emotional videos shared online, the actress revealed feeling overwhelmed by fear, pressure, and uncertainty over her brother’s safety.
Her heartfelt messages have drawn widespread concern on social media, with fans, family members, and fellow entertainers calling for Sammy’s release and urging both sides to ease the escalating tension.
The senator, in his latest post, further alleged that Sammy not only introduced Regina to drugs and sabotaged her rehabilitation but also recounted an incident in which Sammy reportedly arrived at his residence at 4 a.m., demanding a face-to-face meeting after being asked to remove his girlfriend from the house.
“Just four weeks ago, I woke up around 4 a.m. and realised that Regina was in my room and on the phone. She was clearly high… I told Regina that the girl had to leave, and one of my drivers dropped her off. Thirty minutes later, Sammy came to my house shouting and demanding that I come downstairs to face him.
“I eventually went downstairs and had to instruct the security to physically push him out of my compound. The level of audacity was shocking. Without the influence of drugs, could he have been so bold and disrespectful?” Nwoko queried.
He insisted that his attempts to assist Regina in her recovery caused friction with her family.
“In fact, Lawrence and Sammy were the ones who first introduced and supplied these drugs to her. They were deeply involved in the habit themselves, and rather than helping her get better, they kept drawing her back into the same destructive lifestyle.
“Unfortunately, Sammy, Destiny, and some of her friends constantly defied those instructions. They would sneak in and bring her the same drugs she was being treated for,” he argued.
The senator defended his decision to involve law enforcement, saying that Sammy “needs professional rehabilitation and guidance, not sympathy,” while denying allegations that anyone was beaten. He described the video claiming the accused was beaten as “a pure Nollywood scenario filmed in front of my house, in my absence,” staged to discredit him.
Responding to Nwoko’s claims on her Instagram page Sunday morning, Daniels acknowledged past drug use but dismissed her estranged husband’s allegations as exaggerated, manipulative, and intended to damage her reputation.
“Ned, how could you lie so openly and without even small remorse? You know my family has absolutely nothing to do with this… and now you are trying to make them look bad for no reason.
“Fine, I did drugs. So what? Is that even the issue between us? The moment we had a fight, you rushed to the public, shouting ‘drugs, drugs, drugs,’ because you knew it would make a perfect story for the media — something dramatic enough to distract everyone from the real issue!,” she wrote.
She maintained that her drug use was not the cause of their marital problems, accusing the senator of isolating her by targeting her friends and family.
“You want to find a reason to arrest everyone around me so that I will have no one left beside me… Then, when I’m completely isolated and broken, I will be forced to come back to you because I will have nowhere else to go,” she added.
While rejecting Nwoko’s claims that her behavior was erratic, she also alleged that he had encouraged her drug use for his satisfaction.
“You have never seen me act incoherent, stumble, or lose control… Stop using the ‘drugs’ story to create a distraction. Tell people the truth.
“You say you want me to go for rehab, but you are the same Ned who always wanted me high because, in your words, I’m ‘sexier’ when I’m high. You liked me that way because it made me wild and romantic exactly how you wanted me to be,” she wrote.
Daniels further accused him of sexual assault, confinement, and medical manipulation, alleging that he confiscated her phones and coerced doctors into giving her sedatives whenever she resisted.
“Why don’t you tell them how you lock me up and have doctors inject me with drugs meant for people with bipolar disorder? You seize my phones for weeks because you hate that I talk to my family a lot,” she added.
Regina stated that there was no legal marriage between them, adding that her time with Nwoko had cost her crucial years and career opportunities.
“No matter how much you think you spent on me, it can never equal the value of the time I gave you, my prime years, my energy, and the career opportunities I sacrificed while being with you.
“And for the record, I would have filed for divorce long ago if there had ever been a legal marriage between us. We were never married in any court of law… Leave me alone, Ned. Marriage is not by force. Love is not by force,” she said.
Nanji is an investigative journalist with the ICIR. She has years of experience in reporting and broadcasting human angle stories, gender inequalities, minority stories, and human rights issues. She has documented sexual war crimes in armed conflict, sex for grades in Nigerian Universities, harmful traditional practices and human trafficking.