A LAWYER and popular activist, Deji Adeyanju, has taken to social media to confirm that singer, Darlington Okoye, known as Speed Darlington, who was declared missing recently, is in the custody of the Nigerian Police Force in Abuja.

Adeyanju said on X on Tuesday, October 8, that Darlington was arrested in Lagos on Friday, last week after which he was transfered to Abuja where he has been in detention.

He further confirmed that his arrest was as a result of the petition signed by Grammy award -winning singer, Burna Boy.

“We just spent the last 30 minutes with Speed Darlington and he narrated how he was arrested in Lagos, Friday last week. (He was) moved around and eventually brought to Abuja and has been in detention since then. Petition against him was written by Burna Boy, we can confirm,” his post read.

Earlier, a video by Darlinghton’s mother went viral on social media, where she revealed that her son was picked by the police in his house after making a video about Burna Boy, pleading with the artiste to have mercy on her son and release him.

Darlington in his video called out Burna Boy, alleging that he had affiliations with Diddy, the American rapper that recently got arrested for sexual exploitation, human trafficking, among other crimes.

On the other hand, Burna Boy earlier today made a post on his official X account, asking about who is missing, coming shortly after Speed Darlington was declared missing.

“Who’s missing?” he posted.

Meanwhile, the issue has been trending on social media with reactions from Nigerians claiming that Burna Boy got Darlington arrested over defamation as a result of the video he (Darlington) made.

A recent report by The ICIR explained that defamation, in law is the act of communicating to a third party false statements about a person that result in damage to that person’s reputation.

Section 373 of the Nigerian Criminal Code says, “Any person who publishes any defamatory matter is guilty of a misdemeanour, and is liable to imprisonment for one year; and any person who publishes any defamatory matter knowing it to be false is liable to imprisonment for two years.”

According to the report, in Nigerian law, defamation can be both civil and criminal depending on the context, a defamation case can result in both civil remedies and criminal penalties.

In civil law, defamation, including both libel and slander, is treated as a wrongful act. An individual who believes their reputation has been harmed can file a lawsuit in civil court seeking compensation for the damage caused.

Currently, neither has Burna Boy outrightly stated that his post on X was linked to Darlington’s arrest nor is there any statement by the police concerning the issue.