Nollywood actress Tonto Dikeh has been dragged to the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja, facing a N200 million lawsuit over a controversial video showing her allegedly performing an exorcism on a schoolgirl.
Human rights lawyer Ikechukwu Obasi filed the fundamental rights enforcement suit on behalf of a Junior Secondary School 1 student from Junior Secondary School, Durumi II, Abuja, originally from Rivers State. The suit, filed under the Fundamental Rights (Enforcement Procedure) Rules 2009, accuses Dikeh of violating the child’s rights to dignity and privacy.
According to the court’s originating motion and affidavit, Obasi discovered the viral video and photos on Dikeh’s official Facebook page on March 6, 2026. The footage allegedly shows the actress laying the schoolgirl on bare ground, pressing her against a stony surface while wearing artificial fingernails, and performing what Obasi described as a “vicious religious deliverance ritual” that publicly shamed and traumatized the minor.
“On 6th March, 2026, I stumbled upon a viral footage and photos on the official Facebook page of the Respondent, Tonto Dikeh, a Nollywood actress showing the Respondent carrying out a vicious religious exorcism on a female school child wherein the child was laid on bare ground while being pressed against the stony surface despite the Respondent wearing artificial finger nails; harassing, and publicly shaming the child.” The lawyer further argued that the alleged act constituted degrading treatment and exposed the child to public humiliation, stigma, and psychological trauma.
“The actions of the Respondent did not just constitute degrading treatment of the school child but exposed her to contempt, public shame, and likely unspoken child trauma,” the affidavit stated.
The lawyer argued the actions constituted degrading treatment under Section 34 of the 1999 Nigerian Constitution, exposed the child to stigma and ridicule among peers, and violated her privacy rights under Section 37 and the Child Rights Act 2003 by publishing the humiliating footage online.
Obasi is seeking court declarations that the exorcism violated the child’s fundamental rights under Nigerian law, the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, and child protection statutes. He wants Dikeh ordered to immediately delete the video and photos from all platforms, publish an unreserved apology in three national newspapers, and face a perpetual injunction barring her from similar acts against any Nigerian child.