Pastor Biodun Fatoyinbo was accused by Busola Dakolo, a celebrity photographer and wife of Nigerian singer Timi Dakolo, of raping her twice within a week in 2000.
Busola said she was a 16-year-old teenager when Fatoyinbo allegedly raped her, first at her parents’ house and later at a secluded spot in Ilorin, the Kwara State capital.
Fatoyinbo said Busola was a member of the church at the time she said the rape happened, but he insisted he never raped her or anyone else.
“I have never in my life raped anybody even as an unbeliever and I am absolutely innocent of this,” said Fatoyinbo in an unsigned statement posted to his Instagram account on Friday evening.
But the details shared by Busola in the four-part videos published by YNaija on Friday morning have earned support from Nigerians, including politicians, celebrities and civil society organisations, one of which The Guardian learned is filing a class action against Fatoyinbo in the coming week.
“We have more than 30 people who are ready to testify against him,” said Segun Awosanya, who is working with Citizen Gavel, a civic tech organisation, on the case.
“Busola’s case is just one out of the plethora of abuses that we have heard.”
When asked if Fatoyinbo could be sued for statutory rape since Busola said he raped her when she was below the age of 18, Awosanya said it is possible.
Awosanya, however, warned against the case against Fatoyinbo being misconstrued as a fight against the church.
“We are ending rape culture and we are starting in the culture.”
Support for Busola
In a country with an abysmal conviction rate of persons accused of rape, the support Busola has gotten since the interview was published on Friday morning has been immense.“We all, as women, must rise up and demand justice,” tweeted Abike Dabiri, the chairman, Nigerians in Diaspora Commission and senior special adviser to Nigerian president on foreign affairs and the diaspora.
“Busola, you’ve got my back!”
She is also being praised for her bravery by speaking out about her trauma despite having so much to lose, especially in a country that encourages silence in such circumstances.
In his response to the allegations, Fatoyinbo said Busola’s allegations were “fallacious,” “non-existent” and threatened to sue her and her husband.
That threat is being already countered by Busola’s husband Timi Dakolo and Nigerians who promised to establish legal funds for her.
“I have seen Biodun Fatoyinbo’s statement. I look forward to him carrying out his threat to sue Busola Dakolo,” tweeted Dr Joe Abah, a former director-general of the Bureau of Public Service Reforms and current country director of DAI.
“As Mrs Dakolo doesn’t have a church that can fund her defence, I have set aside a little money to contribute to her defence. Please do so too.”
Dr Abah’s tweet elicited a flurry of promises of financial support for Busola legal defence.
Thank you for reaching out to us. We are happy to receive your opinion and request. If you need advert or sponsored post, We’re excited you’re considering advertising or sponsoring a post on our blog. Your support is what keeps us going. With the current trend, it’s very obvious content marketing is the way to go. Banner advertising and trying to get customers through Google Adwords may get you customers but it has been proven beyond doubt that Content Marketing has more lasting benefits.
We offer majorly two types of advertising:
1. Sponsored Posts: If you are really interested in publishing a sponsored post or a press release, video content, advertorial or any other kind of sponsored post, then you are at the right place.
WHAT KIND OF SPONSORED POSTS DO WE ACCEPT?
Generally, a sponsored post can be any of the following:
Press release
Advertorial
Video content
Article
Interview
This kind of post is usually written to promote you or your business. However, we do prefer posts that naturally flow with the site’s general content. This means we can also promote artists, songs, cosmetic products and things that you love of all products or services.
DURATION & BONUSES
Every sponsored article will remain live on the site as long as this website exists. The duration is indefinite! Again, we will share your post on our social media channels and our email subscribers too will get to read your article. You’re exposing your article to our: Twitter followers, Facebook fans and other social networks.
We will also try as much as possible to optimize your post for search engines as well.
Submission of Materials : Sponsored post should be well written in English language and all materials must be delivered via electronic medium. All sponsored posts must be delivered via electronic version, either on disk or e-mail on Microsoft Word unless otherwise noted.
PRICING
The price largely depends on if you’re writing the content or we’re to do that. But if your are writing the content, it is $60 per article.
2. Banner Advertising: We also offer banner advertising in various sizes and of course, our prices are flexible. you may choose to for the weekly rate or simply buy your desired number of impressions.
Technical Details And Pricing
Banner Size 300 X 250 pixels : Appears on the home page and below all pages on the site.
Banner Size 728 X 90 pixels: Appears on the top right Corner of the homepage and all pages on the site.
Large rectangle Banner Size (336x280) : Appears on the home page and below all pages on the site.
Small square (200x200) : Appears on the right side of the home page and all pages on the site.
Half page (300x600) : Appears on the right side of the home page and all pages on the site.
Portrait (300x1050) : Appears on the right side of the home page and all pages on the site.
Billboard (970x250) : Appears on the home page.
Submission of Materials : Banner ads can be in jpeg, jpg and gif format. All materials must be deliverd via electronic medium. All ads must be delivered via electronic version, either on disk or e-mail in the ordered pixel dimensions unless otherwise noted.
For advertising offers, send an email with your name,company, website, country and advert or sponsored post you want to appear on our website to omodjk(at)gmail(dot)com
Normally, we should respond within 48 hours.