Tony Okuyeme, Emmanuel Onani and Adedayo Odulaja
The wife of President Muhammadu Buhari, Aisha Buhari,
frontline activist and former Minister of Education, Dr Oby Ezekwesili, Sunday,
reacted to the invitation letters served on Timi Dakolo and his wife, Busola by
the police.
The action by the police is coming a month after the
singer’s wife made allegations that Pastor Biodun Fatoyinbo of Abuja-based
Commonwealth of Zion Assembly (COZA) raped her twice as a teenager in Ilorin around
20 years ago.
Timi, yesterday, while conducting a press conference,
said that he didn’t his residential to have been given out to the public, this
was even as he argued that rape victims shouldn’t be treated as criminals.
The press conference, which was at Ikeja, Lagos State,
followed police invitation to the couple.
Timi wondered why the police stormed his home to
invite him and his wife to Abuja from Lagos State, while the police have allegedly refused to invite Fatoyinbo,
who allegedly raped his wife 20 years ago.
He added that last month, he and his wife wrote a
petition to the police, and they were questioned for six hours by police. He
didn’t understand why police were inviting them for another round of questioning.
Timi said: “On June 27, my wife, through her legal
representative, wrote a petition on rape against Mr. Biodun Fatoyinbo. The
petition was filed at the Office of the Assistant Commissioner of Police,
Alagbon, Ikoyi. We had four meetings and about six hours at the police station.
The IG personally assigned the file and immediately asked for an action on the
case but we deliberately decided not to publicise it because we believed the
law would be followed through.
“We had filed the petition before the release of the
interview that had been recorded three weeks before. The interview was
published on June 28. We have on several occasions met with the police in the
course of investigation. We were therefore shocked by the invitation to Abuja when
no visible action was taken to interview Mr. Fatoyinbo.”
According to him, since the entire saga began, his
life as well as the lives of his wife, Busola, and his three children have been
at risk.
He also alleged that things got worse when the police
made their residential address in Lagos public thereby making them susceptible
to attacks.
He said: “I didn’t expect that our residential
address, where my children live, would be released to the public and since
then, we have noticed how my life, my wife’s life and the lives of my children
have been put at risk to strange faces around the house. We have been followed
home, people are watching our home; we have not been able to do our work. We
now have to tell our children why they cannot step outside.”
He said his wife had informed him of the alleged rape
since last year and it took a while before they both decided to make the matter
public. Dakolo further stated that the allegation was not targeted at the
church, but Fatoyinbo and the matter should thus be treated as a crime and not
a campaign against the body of Christ.
He said: “I have never attended COZA in my life. I
have never been in the same room with Fatoyinbo in my life, neither have I been
a music director.”
Taking to Twitter, Ezekwesili said the operation by
the police on the matter “appeared extremely intimidating,” urging the police
hierarchy to offer an explanation.
“Just catching
up on this and seeing those pictures of the Dakolo’s report of your
‘invitation’ makes this your statement quite curious @PoliceNG . Did not seem
your officers executed a “regular police invitation,” she wrote.
The former chairman of National Human Rights
Commission (NHRC), Prof. Chidi Odinkalu, mocked the police for summoning the
Dakolos to answer to cases of criminal conspiracy, falsehood and mischief.
Odinkalu tweeted: “So all of a sudden @policeNG has
case of “falsehood, mischief…” nonexistent crimes, against @timidakolo?”
Timi had on Saturday revealed through Instagram that
he and his wife have been summoned to Abuja by the police over rape allegations
made against Pastor Fatoyinbo, who was forced to announce a leave of absence as
a result of the outrage that greeted the allegations against him.
In an invitation letter dated Thursday, July 18 which
the singer posted on Instagram, the police say they are investigating a case of
criminal conspiracy, falsehood and mischief, prompting many Nigerians reacting
on social media to sense an attempt to turn the case against them.
According to Timi, he and his family will not succumb
to bullying on the issue no matter where it is coming from.
Earlier on Saturday, the Bayelsa State-born musician
had claimed that some strange men who came in a van with number plate: BR932KSF,
attempted to invade his residence with guns on Saturday, before later assuring
fans of the safety of his family members while revealing the police summon.
The Force spokesman, Frank Mba, said that the
invitation was not synonymous with a Warrant of Arrest and must not be
misconstrued to be one.
Mba stated:
“Rather, it is a polite investigative tool used in eliciting information
voluntarily from parties to aid police investigations.”
In another post on his Instagram account, Timi stated
his readiness to protect his family at all costs, writing: “Now this: a false
investigation in Abuja when our own petition filed since June has not been
answered and no invitation has been made to the accused in a rape case? Not one
movement towards justice? Rubbishing the legal and criminal system? And sending
a bus load of questionable armed “policemen” and shady men lying in wait to
intimidate my wife and children today, forcing their way into my home? Is that
how the REAL police deliver a letter?”
Further, he wrote: “I will fight for my wife and my
children -it’s the promise I made with my life and one I intend to keep. I will
defend them from the unrelenting attack of a weak man who thinks he can use
money and power to cover for all of his crimes. Like I said, we have since been
ready. Give us the fire, and then watch me work!”
Meanwhile, Aisha Buhari, has called the attention of
the Inspector-General of Police (IGP) to the alleged attempt to arrest Timi and
his wife.
Mba, while confirming the
invitation, said it was consequent upon an ongoing investigation.
The letter of invitation said to
have been released by Dakolo, showed that the duo was to report in Abuja
tomorrow.
Also, a columnist with The
PUNCH, Abimbola Adelakun, was on Sunday questioned by security men at COZA,
in Abuja.
Adelakun, who said she was at the church on
Sunday in furtherance of her research on Pentecostal churches, said she was
pulled out of the church by the church’s security men, who recognised her, and
made her to stay in “one place where they were keeping everybody that they
suspected.”
The columnist said her demand to be allowed
to leave was refused by the security men. She said the matter has been taken to
a Police station in Abuja.
On her Twitter handle, @Adunnibaby, the
columnist wrote, “I’m aware of the info about my arrest at COZA today. I wasn’t
arrested. Earlier, I sent out an image because I was concerned when pulled
aside by the protocol department for questioning. Thanks to everyone who has
been concerned about me. I am sorry for all the misinformation out there.”
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