Court Judgment Reveals N1m Fine Was For Busola Dakolo’s Lawyer

Fresh facts have emerged on the judgement delivered in
the case between Busola Dakolo, Nigerian celebrity photographer,
and Biodun Fatoyinbo, senior pastor of the Commonwealth of Zion
Assembly (COZA).

Busola, wife to Timi Dakolo, Nigerian gospel singer, has been
enmeshed in an intense legal war with Fatoyinbo after she had
claimed that the COZA pastor forcefully had carnal knowledge of her
on two occasions as a teenager.

In the suit, filed on behalf of Busola by Pelumi Olajengbesi,
her lawyer, the celebrity photographer had alleged that the action
of the pastor, as well as his denial in statements made thereafter,
caused her “continuous emotional distress” that affected her
marital sex life.

On Thursday, a report had surfaced that the high court in Abuja
imposed a fine of N1 million on the celebrity
photographer.

The report, however, turned out to be in error as fresh facts
emerged on Saturday that Oathman Musa, the judge, who presided over
the case, did not order Busola to pay any fine.

According to the court judgment,^[1] the
judge ordered Olajengbesi to pay the sum of N1m personally as a
fine and not the celebrity photographer.

“It is for all the reasons I advanced herein before, that I
declare this action a vehicle of injustice, judicial intimidation
and thorough abuse of judicial process carrying in it an overload
of dormant claim and injustice, it must and is hereby dismissed. I
hereby award the cost of one million naira (N1,000,000) against the
claimant’s client personally,” the court document read in part.

The judge added that Dakolo’s lawyer would have been
directed to pay “10 times the amount” but “in the interest of women
who have cases that are dormant, the court shall always encourage
them to come forward.”

In reaction to the verdict, Busola, through her lawyer, vowed to
approach a superior court to intervene on the matter.