COZA pastor, Fatoyinbo, reacts to rape allegation

Biodun Fatoyinbo, founder of Commonwealth of Zion Assembly (COZA), has denied the rape allegations levelled against him by Timi Dakolo’s wife, Busola.

Mr Fatoyinbo said in a statement Friday evening, ”I have never raped before.”

He described the allegations as ”falacious”, ”non-existent” adding that ”they are denied in all measures.”

“Looking at her status and that of her husband, I am dumbfounded why she would say such a thing,” he said in a statement.

Mrs. Dakolo is the second high profile person after Ese Walter to accuse the cleric of sexual abuse.

The mother-of-three laid it bare in a damning interview conducted by YNaija’s Chude Jideonwo.

The photographer said some years ago, while she was still below 18, the pastor visited her parents’ home and raped her.

She said the cleric, whose church she attended at the time, sexually abused her one more time before she left the church.

Mrs Dakolo said the case was known to church leaders who tried to cover it up. She said Mr Fatoyinbo pleaded with her and her family to forgive her, and blamed the devil for his behaviour.

The allegations sparked anger online on Friday, with many Nigerians calling for the popular pastor to be prosecuted.

Mr Fatoyinbo in his response, acknowledged knowing Mrs Dakolo and her family ”during the early start of his church in Ilorin in 1999.”

Countering Mrs Dakolo’s claims, he said he never had a private interactions with her beyond his pastoral duties.

Meanwhile, Don Jazzy, Toke Makinwa, Daddy Freeze and a host of other celebrities have praised Mrs Dakolo for speaking up.

On the other hand, a former presidential aide to Goodluck Jonathan, Reno Omokri, faulted Mrs Dakolo’s allegations against the controversial pastor.

Mr Omokri said Mrs Dakolo’s narration of how she was raped was not plausible, adding that Mr Fatoyinbo is too ‘sleek to rape an underage girl’.

According to him, though he did not like the COZA pastor, the story does not add up and ‘rings false’.

Mr Omokri wrote: “I have never liked Pastor Biodun Fatoyinbo of Coza global for reasons that I will not say publicly. However, I am mature enough to divorce my emotions and be led by logic. And I counsel those now condemning him to do the same.

“The average Black African is easily moved to hysteria by excitable emotions. This is why it is ridiculously easy to manipulate Africans with the media. Satan does his best work with such people, who can’t suppress emotion in preference to logic.

“Think. Don’t emote. A pastor comes to your house early in the morning. He does not know who will open when he knocks, or who is at home. He knocks and immediately you open he pushed you to a chair and raped you in your pajamas. Do people think?”