COZA: Dakolo loses rape case against Pastor Fatoyinbo, incurs N1m cost

Busola Dakolo, wife of popular singer Timi Dakolo has lost her rape case filed at the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory—against celeb COZA Pastor Biodun Fatoyinbo.

Bisola didn’t only lose, she incurred N1m cost—for wasting the court’s time.

The court sitting at Bwari, Abuja on Thursday dismissed the case on the ground that it amounts to injustice, and an abuse of judicial process.

According to the ruling, the case is empty and purely sentimental.

The presiding judge, Justice Oathman A. Musa, said the case was aimed more at cruelty than obtaining justice.

The court also said the cost of N1,000,000 against Busola should have been 10 times more because the court’s time was wasted.

The plaintiff accused the cleric of raping her when she was still a teenager.

She told the court that the pastor forcefully pushed her until she fell on the couch close to the front door of her house, after which he pinned her to the couch, undressed her, “caressing her body, fondling her breasts, exposing his genitals to her glare, forcing a bottle of soda (Krest) down her throat, thereby making her breathing difficult, all the while covering her mouth to muffle her screams, and thereafter threatened her life”.

In the suit filed on her behalf by her lawyer, Pelumi Olajengbesi and Co of Law corridor, she also demanded that the court declare that the pastor’s denial of his alleged acts contained jointly and/or severally through a press statement he released on June 28, 2019, had caused her continuous emotional distress and amounted to intentional infliction of emotional distress on her.

She told the High Court that the rape had adversely affected her marital sex life and demanded a letter of apology from Fatoyinbo to show remorse action.

In a preliminary objection filed through Fatoyinbo’s team of lawyers led by a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Dr. Alex Iziyon, the cleric, maintained that Busola’s suit was frivolous and statute-barred.

He argued that all the reliefs Busola sought against him in the suit marked CV/2817/18, were not grantable.

The Dakolos found themselves in the news early on when the popular singer decided to pop the family secret on social media, hoping to get justice for his wife and others.

The incident lead to a US-#Me-too kind of storm in Nigeria, with other female celebrities outing their rape experiences.