By TIMILEYIN OMILANA

Busola Dakolo has said that there is “pressure to bury” her rape case against Senior Pastor of Commonwealth of Zion Assembly (Coza) Biodun Fatoyinbo.

“My lawyers and my family have heard about all manner of manipulation and foul play being attempted to stop the ministry from beginning prosecution immediately,” Busola said in a statement while announcing that the police have concluded investigations and submitted a report to the Ministry of Justice.

She said people in the “ministry and the corridors of power who have called in solidarity and to reassure me that they are monitoring the ministry of justice and that this pressure to bury the case will not succeed.”

Busola, married to popular musician Timi Dakolo, in June 2019 accused Pastor Fatoyinbo of raping her twice, before she turned 18.

The allegations went viral on social media, with some saying it had triggered Nigeria’s #MeToo moment.

The allegation also forced the pastor to go on “leave of absence from the pulpit” for weeks because it was the “right thing to do”. He, however, denied any wrongdoing.

The police and the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), the umbrella organisation of Christian churches and Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria (PFN), later opened investigations.

In what seem like an update after almost a year since the police began its investigations, Busola in a statement said the police “handed over its report to the Ministry of Justice in Abuja for onward prosecution of Biodun Fatoyinbo.”

“He clearly has a case to answer,” Busola said.

She posted a letter from the Nigerian police notifying her that the case file has been forwarded to the Director of Public Prosecution of the Federation for “legal advice and further necessary action.”

Prior police investigation report, Busola in September 2019 sued the founder of COZA to court for intentionally inflicting and causing her continuous emotional distress.

In a reaction to the lawsuit, Fatoyinbo filed a counter-claim stating that the accusations from Busola should be dismissed because it was frivolous and statute-barred, further maintaining that the suit was grossly incompetent.

In his ruling in November, Justice Othman Musa, while delivering his judgment awarded the cost of N1m personally as a fine against her lawyer Pelumi Olajengbesi, stating that the lawsuit bought by Busola amounted to “an injustice and an abuse of judicial process.”

The judge wrote that “What is left in the suit is sentiment and the case is soaked in emotions and ferried into the court by the claimant (Dakolo) riding on the thick clouds of burgeoning sentiments.” (The Guardian)

Update news