My wife and I have called this press conference because, as a man, I
have done what I am sup-posed to do – I stood by my wife when she
decided to go public with her truth. It was not an easy decision but I
was raised by my Grandmother – I saw that woman go to heaven and back
for me – she used to trek kilometres to go to church to pray for me and
sold everything to make sure we ate. From loving my Grandmother, I have
a deep respect for women; I took the decision boldly as a man should. I
stood for her when she came under attacks from the ill-intentioned
members of society. I have fought for her even when I have been abused,
lied against and accused of unspeaka-ble things.
As a Father however, I could not have foreseen the events of yesterday
when an attempt was made to abduct myself and my wife – FOR TELLING HER
TRUTH.
All we have asked is for this matter to be duly investigated. I did not
expect that our residential address – where our children live – will be
released to the public AND SINCE THEN, I have noted with increasing
alarm, how my life, my wife’s life and the lives of our children have
been put at risk by unscrupulous persons. We have been followed, our
home has been watched, people have been standing in corners pointing
fingers at our home – we have been unable to do any work; the children
have had to be explained to several times why they cannot go outside and
play.
As a Father and as the protector of my home under God, I have decided to
come out and speak publicly against the harassment, bullying and
maliciousness we have received as law abiding citi-zens of Nigeria –
BECAUSE my wife decided to tell her truth and I decided that I trust
her, I believe her and stand by her. I will never leave her side now and
I will do my best to protect her. However, the good people of Nigeria,
who have shown us so much love, deserve to know what has been happening.
On behalf of my family, I would like to share a few highlights,
especially about the attempted ab-duction of yesterday, Saturday, July
20th, 2019:
HIGHLIGHTS
1. On Thursday, June 27th, my wife, through her Legal Representative
filed a petition with the police in Lagos State about Mr. Biodun
Fatoyinbo of Commonwealth of Zion Assembly (CO-ZA) raping her as a
minor. The Petition was filed at the Office of the Assistant General of
Police, Alagbon, Ikoyi. We had 4 meetings spanning over 6 hours at the
Police Station on that day and afterwards, the A.I.G himself personally
assigned the file immediately and asked for an expedited action to
investigate the case. We decided not to publicise the fact that a case
had been filed, as we believed that the law should be allowed to run its
full course, undisturbed.
2. We intentionally filed the police case, following the due process of
the law before agreeing for the release of the interview that had been
recorded many weeks before. The inter-view was then released with my
wife’s permission, on Friday, June 28th, 2019 by Y!TV.
3. We have since been to the Police Station in Lagos several times on
invite by the Police to respond to various questions in the course of
their investigations. WE WERE THEREFORE SHOCKED TO BE INVITED TO ABUJA –
WHEN NO VISIBLE ACTION HAD BEEN TAKEN TO IN-TERVIEW MR. FATOYINBO.
4. On Thursday, July 4th, Y!TV published another video with a former
employee of COZA alleg-ing that Pastor Biodun also raped her. My wife
broke down crying as she listened to her in-terview “There are other
women – this recent?!” she kept saying as she cried. What sur-prised us
was how Modele Fatoyinbo, who asked my wife to come and help her look
after their newborn child – which is what led to the second rape – is
the same person that asked this lady to come and look after her children
– again? 15 years after?! It is strange. We do not know this lady, we
have still not met her, but we would like to thank her for lending her
voice to this truth.
5. As far as we know, Mr Fatoyinbo has not been questioned on the
strength of my wife’s petition – even after several invitations by the
Police that we have honoured. However, we have been invited to go to
Abuja to respond to queries on actions that are not crimes known under
any Nigerian law – “mischief” and “falsehood” are not crimes; we were
not given details of the supposed case, THERE WAS NO ADDRESS FOR THE
POLICE INTERVIEW and NO RESPONSE HAS BEEN GIVEN TO US ON OUR OWN
PETITION THAT HAS BEEN FILED ALMOST A MONTH AGO.
6. On Wednesday, July 10th, our address was shared online by Kemi
Olunloyo in the most careless, reckless and wicked manner. To think she
is supposed to be a woman and a mother and had no regard for the safe
keep of our children and she has infringed on our Fundamental Human
Rights to Personal Dignity and Privacy and is risking the lives of my 3
little children! This was callous! I decided not to engage with her, but
I want Nigerians, the Armed Forces, Amnesty International and the good
men and women of the Nigeria Police Force to know that SINCE THEN people
have been following myself and wife in tinted un-marked cars, TO OUR
HOME! AT different times, in the last week we have been trailed. The
last event is what happened again yesterday and this time an attempt was
made to abduct my wife and I. I had to park our cars and stay indoors.
My wife and I have been un-able to work and my children have been unable
to go out freely even in this holiday period.
YESTERDAY’S AMBUSH
1. Yesterday, Saturday July 20th, 2019 in the early afternoon, I had
notice a tinted bus parked near our home. I did not know that at the
same time, my wife was being followed by a car into the estate.
2. She noticed the car and out of fear, parked the car to be sure that
her fear was not real – but it was. Every time she parked, the car
parked and she decided ts hat she should rush home quickly, since she
was near the house.
3. When she got onto the street, she noticed the same bus I had seen
earlier and saw that someone from the car that was following her
signaled to the bus, at which point 3 ARMED POLICEMEN wearing SARS vests
surrounded her car, demanding for her to come down. The door of the bus
was open and she saw that the bus was full of armed policemen.
4. She immediately called her lawyer and when the policemen heard that
she was talking to a legal representative, they stepped back and claimed
that they were only there to drop a letter; they had not said this
before nor shown her the letter.
5. Before then, they were demanding that I step outside the house. They
had also demand-ed that my wife step out of the car.
8. The letters the Policemen said they had when they heard us speaking
to the lawyer were then presented. We noted that the letters are dated
Thursday, July 18th. Why were they being delivered on a Saturday
afternoon by a bus full of armed policemen and a car trailing my wife
into the estate? Why did they not deliver the letter and leave when
neither my-self nor my wife were present? And why did they only step
back when they became aware that lawyers were involved? These questions
have been on my mind. I do not have an-swers for them.
9. The letters made no reference to any case or matter and it states
that we are being inves-tigated for a case of falsehood and mischief –
two offenses that are not known in law.
10. In the police’s press release yesterday, they claim a Police
Invitation Letter is “… a polite in-vestigative tool used in eliciting
information voluntarily from parties to aid in police investi-gation.”
If they were just delivering a letter, the manner in which they
intentionally tried to instill fear, intimidate us with guns and insist
on our coming to their bus – was neither po-lite nor trustworthy.
11. How is the Nigeria Police pursuing justice when Pastor Biodun
Fatoyinbo, who is the ac-cused in my wife’s matter, is not being treated
in this manner but the authorities I expect to pursue justice are
attempting to intimidate myself and my wife?
12. My children were at home!!!! They could also have been in their
mother’s car!!!
13. We have never threatened anyone on our lives. Rather, we are now the
ones who feel threatened. That is why we have Falana & Falana Chambers
representing us and they have reported this matter to the police.
14. We receive the information from our lawyers, Falana & Falana
Chambers, this morning that both our petition and the petition of Mr
Biodun Fatoyinbo will be moved to Lagos. We acknowledge the effort of
the Nigeria Police to ensure that our confidence in their impar-tiality,
professionalism & good sense in this case is not shaken.
NEXT STEPS
1. We are grateful for the outpouring of love and support we continue to
receive from Nigerians at home and abroad. We acknowledge the online
support of the First Lady, Mrs Aisha Buhari.
2. We will not be intimidated. We are determined to get justice and
ensure the church is a safe space for boys and girls.
3. If they can intimidate my wife and I who have some level of public
goodwill, what will happen to Amaka in Maitama who knows no one and has
no one to speak for her?