In this piece, STEPHEN UBIMAGO reflects on a report alleging
that alleged rape victim, Mrs. Busola Dakolo, has lodged a formal
complaint before the police that Pastor Biodun Fatoyinbo of COZA
assaulted her some years ago.
Barely a fortnight ago, Mrs Busola Dakolo (nee Amupitan), wife
of popular inspirational singer Timi Dakolo, shocked the nation
when in an interview granted YNaija she broke her silence on how
some years back in Ilorin, Biodun Fatoyinbo, the flamboyant
Abuja-based Senior Pastor of Commonwealth of Zion Assembly (COZA),
raped and stole her virginity in her teens.
At the time, then Miss Amupitan, who was only a secondary school
student of Gifted School Academy in Suleja, Niger State, had barely
started fellowshipping with Fatoyinbo’s Divine Delight Club, which
would later transform into COZA.
Her distressing narrative to Chude Jideonwo of YNaija is
excerpted thus: “I was still in secondary school. I was staying in
Ilorin with my parents. I returned home from a particular holiday
and my sisters all told me they are now going to a particular
fellowship that’s like a club. They do their services on Saturday.
It was more like a gathering of young people.
“…By the time I finished secondary school, I returned back to
Ilorin. And I was still contemplating, should I join this church?
So I told my sisters and they told me it is now a church; it is
Commonwealth of Zion Assembly.
“…One particular day, Pastor Biodun came to me. He started
coming to my house. And all of us in my family we were so active in
church. In fact the Amupitans were so passionate about COZA.
“…He said he wants to be a spiritual father to me. At that
point, even though in my world I was very mindful of people around
me, he was able to break it when he said he wanted to be a father
to me, somebody who I could always interact with.
“…Meanwhile during these interactions he asked me whether I had
a boyfriend. And I told him I don’t have a boyfriend, that I was a
virgin. And he said that is really good, that I should keep myself.
It felt like good advice.
“…So I became relaxed until a particular day, which was a
Monday, and this time my mum had travelled with my younger sister.
It was just me and one of my elder sisters that were at home. The
house is a duplex, so big that if you are in a room upstairs you
will not know what is going on downstairs.
“…It was around 6:30-7am. It was pretty early. I was still in my
nightwear, a gown. I heard a knock. And I asked who that is, and he
said Pastor Biodun. Immediately I opened the door, he pushed me. He
didn’t utter a word; he just pushed me to one of the chairs in my
living room. And I saw him like he was removing his belt.
“…And he said do what I want you to do and you will be fine. At
this point, a whole lot was going on in my head, because this was
someone I had put up there; that I felt was really concerned about
me. I had already filled him in the place of my father who could
speak to me, guide me.
“…And then when I was just about to react, he covered my mouth.
When he covered my mouth he was like ‘Busola listen to me and you
will be fine. Just do what I want you to do.’ I did not struggle. I
just left him, and then he brought out his penis.
“…I was wearing a night gown, I was wearing panties; he put down
my pants and that is how…he found it difficult to enter but he
kept…but I kept grunting; I will cry…I had lots of mixed
feelings.
“…He eventually penetrated, blood dropped on the floor. He
finished what he wanted to do; he had an orgasm and he zipped up.
He left me there. I sat on the floor. He went out. It looked like
an event, but a whole lot had damaged within me.
“…He entered his car, and all I saw was that he came back, and
he brought a bottle of Krest (a soft drink). It was already opened
and he poured the content into my mouth, and I kept swallowing it
and it finished.
“…He was now tapping me that I should be happy that it was he a
man of God that did this to me.”
While some maintain that the narrative is a classic case of
sexual predation and exploitation, nay, rape, others think
otherwise.
It suffices to note however that Mrs Dakolo has reportedly
lodged a formal complaint before police so as to facilitate
investigation.
However, the embattled Fatoyinbo is said to have posted a
statement on his Instagram page @biodunfatoyinbo saying he had
never raped a woman all his life.
“I have never in my life raped anybody even as an unbeliever and
I am absolutely innocent of this,” he reportedly stated.
The question arising in light of the foregoing is whether or not
Fatoyinbo’s alleged sexually assault of Dakolo amounted to rape, if
her narrative is anything to go by.
Second, whether or not a case of rape can be maintained against
Fatoyinbo and whether Dakolo’s case can succeed having regard to
the fact that several years have passed since the alleged attack
took place.
What is Rape?
In Nigeria, rape is a type of sexual assault usually involving
sexual intercourse or other forms of sexual penetration carried out
against a woman aged 16 and above without her consent.
According to section 357 of the Criminal Code Act “Any person
who has unlawful carnal knowledge of a woman or girl, without her
consent, or with her consent, if the consent is obtained by force
or by means of threats or intimidation of any kind, or by fear of
harm, or by means of false and fraudulent representation as to the
nature of the act, or, in the case of a married woman, by
personating her husband, is guilty of an offence which is called
rape.”
If Busola’s account is anything to go by, and in light of s. 357
of the CCA as referenced above, Fatoyinbo did indeed exploit Dakolo
by taking advantage of the confidence he had seemingly cultivated
between them.
Second, he did the act right in her parents’ home and in their
absence while covering her mouth to muffle her scream.
Third, no romantic relationship ever developed between them
prior to the assault; and he’d warned her to cooperate in the act
and she will be fine (otherwise she won’t be fine).
If this oral evidence is correct, it stands to reason then that
Fatoyinbo ravished the then young woman without her consent.
But can a potential charge of rape against Fatoyinbo be
presently maintained against Fatoyinbo several years after the fact
and can the charge succeed in light of the above?
Of course, a criminal charge bordering on rape can be maintained
against Fatoyinbo since time does not run against an alleged
criminal conduct.
But can such a charge if maintained succeed?
To answer this question might require attention be turned to a
recent rape case that took place in Osun State between a then
serving 23 year old female Youth Corp member and a traditional
ruler in a remote community in the state.
According to reports, the Alowa of Ilowa in Obokun LGA of the
Osun State, Oba Adebukola Alli, was alleged to have raped the youth
corps member, one Helen Okpara, 23, who was posted on NYSC
assignment to his Ilowa-Ijesa community. The crime was alleged to
have taken place at the Oba’s residence.
Ms. Opara alleged that when the Oba started pressuring and
threatening her, prelude to the alleged rape, she sent panic text
messages to her NYSC employers and her pastor, who also alerted the
Police.
The police, however, claimed that the time was too late for them
to act; that no sooner had they moved in response to the young
woman’s apprehension than the Oba allegedly forced himself into his
hapless victim.
In his defense however, the Oba claimed that what happened
between him and Opara was consensual coitus, maintaining they were
lovers and that the girl enjoyed the session while it lasted.
The young woman however maintained that the Oba forcibly had
carnal knowledge of her after luring her to his private residence
in Osogbo.
While trial proceedings in the matter were going on before
Justice Oyejide Falola of an Osun State High Court in Osogbo,
members of the Oba’s community mobilized into demonstration parties
around the court premises, whereat they demonized Opara, while
lionizing the Oba in an apparent ploy to intimidate the court into
swaying its decision in the Oba’s favour.
The defense team, led by one Taofeek Tewogbade, even went so far
as to accuse the traumatized Opara of orchestrating the trial,
gleefully challenging her to expose (if not before the open court,
then before the judge in his private chambers) her private part for
inspection in order to prove she sustained bruises as evidence of
rape!
But for the shame of it, the victim couldn’t bear to subject
herself to medical examination, a gap in the prosecution’s arsenal,
which proved advantageous to the defense.
The Court would thus discharge and acquit Oba Adebukola Alii of
the rape charge.
It ruled that the prosecution failed to prove its case beyond
reasonable doubt that the encounter between the two was not that of
mutual consent.
In his judgment, Justice Falola said the chief prosecution
witness, Ms. Okpara herself, failed to tender enough exhibits to
convince the court beyond reasonable doubt that Oba Alli raped
her.
He ruled that a case of rape could only be established with
exhibits, which include used bed sheets; the victim’s panties and a
medical doctor’s report showing forcible penetration, adding that
the prosecution failed to tender all these in evidence.
Citing the case of Corporal Nicholas against the Nigerian Army,
Justice Falola, in his over one-hour judgment, maintained that
there was no proof that the former corps member was attacked by the
monarch during the encounter as she had claimed.
The trial judge, who said Okpara failed to show to the court via
medical examination the bruises on her private part as evidence
that she was raped, noted that the prosecution also failed to show
to the court the torn clothes of the victim as she had claimed in
her submissions before the court.
The point established by the above Justice Falola ruling , which
also follows a plethora of cases its ilk, is that rape can only be
proved by exhibits, not just by oral evidence.
Thus, can Mrs Dakolo, after several years since the dismal event
took place, produce the blood-stained used sheets over which the
assault took place?
Can the victim’s panties and a medical doctor’s report showing
forcible penetration be produced after several years since the
dismal event took place?
Or can any medical examination at the moment confirm that
forceful penetration of the victim by Fatoyinbo did take place at
the time it allegedly occurred?
In light of the above demanding requirements of the law it may
be stated that save and unless Fatoyinbo voluntarily admits to
having committed the alleged offence, it would be practically
impossible for any charge of rape against Fatoyinbo to succeed.
It would have been a different outcome if immediately the
alleged offence took place, then Miss Amupitan quickly proceeded to
formally lodge a complaint before the police and press charges,
ensuring that a medical report confirming forcible penetration had
been obtained; that pictures or videos of the blood stains
evidencing penetration had been taken; or indeed the blood stained
sheets were recovered and preserved as exhibits.
Responding to the development, a Lagos-based lawyer, Chief Imoh
Nelson, told Daily Independent in an exclusive chat that the reason
most rape cases have either not gone to trial or why trial have
failed to result in any conviction has to do with sociological
factors that seem to minimize or trivialize the offense.
He said: “The problem with rape is the psychological and
societal perception of rape. Victims often find it difficult to
come out to tell the world what has happened to them at the time it
occurred because of stigma.
“Because rape victims, out of fear of exposure or stigma, fail
to report the matter for it to be properly investigated or brought
before a competent court, the jurisprudence of rape has not been
able to develop in Nigeria.”
He thus admonished that “First the victim should be able to come
out, report the case and subject herself to medical
examination.”
He nonetheless blames the festering malady squarely on society
for habitually stigmatizing rape victims.
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