The wife of soul singer Timi Dakolo, Busola Dakolo, has alleged that she was raped as a teenager by flamboyant Abuja based Pastor of Commonwealth of Zion Assembly, Biodun Fatoyinmbo.
Busola, a mum of three revealed this to Chude Jideonwo, a Nigerian lawyer, journalist and media entrepreneur in a now viral video.
Busola Dakolo, a celebrity photographer was a 17-year-old in the Divine Delight Club, the precursor to Biodun Fatoyinbo’s Commonwealth of Zion Assembly when she said was groomed and raped by the pastor.
According to her, she came home on holiday, while in secondary school then, recounts how her sisters convinced her to join the church which was formerly known as Divine Delight Club where Christians gather to share the word of God on Saturdays.
She further said pastor Biodun Fatoyinbo was married with a child when he came to her house one early morning, raped her and told her she should be happy he was the one who took her virginity.
At several occasions, there has been rumours that the man of God sleeps with members of his church, but none has been bold enough to publicly open up.
Read a summary of the interview by a social media user:
Busola Dakolo, a celebrity photographer and the wife of singer Timi Dakolo was a teenager in the Divine Delight Club, the precursor to Biodun Fatoyinbo’s Commonwealth of Zion Assembly when she alleges she was groomed and raped by the pastor. https://t.co/bancIx26TD
— 𝖠𝖽𝖾𝗈𝗅𝖺 𝖬𝖺𝗋𝗒 𝖲𝗅𝖾𝗌𝗌𝗈𝗋 (@Adeola0503) June 28, 2019
Fatoyinbo showed up at her house unannounced. It was a Monday morning early enough that Busola Dakolo was still in her nightgown. Her mother had traveled with her sisters and were absent at service the previous Sunday.
He didn’t say a word, forcing her onto a chair, speaking only to command her to do as he said. It took Busola a while to come to terms with what was about to happen, and it was why she didn’t struggle or make a fuss when he pulled down her underwear and raped her.
She remembers he didn’t say anything after, left to his car, returned with a bottle of Krest and forced her to drink it, probably as some crude contraceptive. She remembers him saying.
“You should be happy that a man of God did this to you.” At this time, his wife had just given birth to their first child, Oluwashindara.
Modele Fatoyinbo asks that she come to help her with her new baby, something she had never done before. It was normal for church members to come serve at the pastor’s house so her sisters allayed her protests.
Feeling she had no options, she went to her pastor’s house, Fatoyinbo tried to isolate her later that night from his wife and their daughter by insisting she slept in the family’s guest room.
She managed to thwart his plans, appealing to the pastor’s wife to let her sleep in their master bedroom. “No one ignores me.” He would tell her this the next morning, smacking her butt.
It was an ominous enough statement that Busola became apprehensive and tried to leave for her house once it was past twilight. It was the first of many threats she would get from the flamboyant pastor.
Fatoyinbo would insist on dropping her off at home, even though she protested several times. Instead of dropping her off at the junction as he had promised, he detoured, driving her away from safety and towards a secluded spot.
He threatened her the entire drive, making proclamations about how he owned her and how he was angry that he had thwarted her the night before.
He opened the car, pulled her out of the passenger seat and raped her a second time in the space of a week. First behind the car, then moving her to the bonnet for ease of access.
He guided back into the car when he was done, and told her he loved her, speaking of how he’d told his pastors that men of God raped women, that there was nothing special about what he did. He dropped her off outside her home as though everything was normal.
A dream was the catalyst for Busola opening up for the first time about Fatoyinbo raping her. Her elder sister had relocated to Lagos, and she pleaded to visit, drained from avoiding the pastor.
In Lagos, her sister who she believes has the Sight, told her about a dream she had had, where she’d seen Busola crying, blood on a chair and Fatoyinbo smiling.
She asked her pointedly, breaking months of silence and starting a flood of admissions about the rape and everything that had happened.
Her sister convinced her to return to Ilorin and together they told her other sisters and her brother, who was studying at the University of Ilorin. Her brother flew into a rage, grabbing a pocket knife and taking her to Fatoyinbo’s house.
He was able to intercept them before they reached his house, and together with Wole Soetan, who she suggests is now the pastor of the COZA Portharcourt branch, convince them to return home and that Fatoyinbo would follow.
The pastor and two of his church members would eventually come to pacify her family, blaming the devil and Soetan even promising to leave the church to show how little tolerance he had for promiscuity.
After Soetan would confide in Busola that he couldn’t leave the church because he felt Fatoyinbo was ‘weak’ and needed spiritual guidance and support. He convinced her siblings to keep the rape and assault from her mother.
