₦airaland Forum

The wife of Timi Dakolo, Busola Dakolo has told a High Court of the Federal Capital Territory in Abuja that the rape allegedly committed against her by the founder and Senior Pastor of Commonwealth of Zion Assembly, Biodun Fatoyinbo, has adversely affected her marital sex life. She therefore demanded “a personal letter of apology” from the cleric to show honest remorse for his misdeeds.

You would recall that Busola Dakolo, a photographer and wife of the musician, Timi Dakolo, had in June accused the founder of Commonwealth of Zion Assembly, Pastor Abiodun Fatoyinbo of rape.

Mrs Dakolo during an interview with Y!Naija, said some years ago, while she was still below the age of 18, the pastor allegedly visited her parents’ home when no one was in the house and allegedly raped her.

Dakolo in a suit filed on her behalf by her lawyer, Pelumi Olajengbesi and Co of Law corridor, in Abuja on Sunday asked the court to declare that Fatoyinbo’s denial of his alleged acts contained jointly and/or severally through a press statement he released on June 28 2019, had caused her continuous emotional distress and amounted to intentional infliction of emotional distress on her.

Olajengbesi said, “The claimant avers that she was immediately terrified and in shock while the defendant pinned her down on the couch following which he caressed her body, fondled her breasts, pulled her pant, quickly half-pulled his trousers and ordered her to allow him have his way with her.

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“The claimant avers that the defendant in the process used his hand to cover her mouth, thereby muffling her screams. The claimant avers that the defendant made efforts to penetrate her vagina, whilst she struggled to fight him off; however, the defendant overpowered her and penetrated her vagina and had sexual intercourse with her.

“The claimant avers that while she was in shock of the incident which had rendered her befuddled and mortified, the defendant rushed out of the living room area of her family home and briefly returned with a bottle of soda (Krest) which he forced down her throat thereby making her breathing difficult.”

He added, “The defendant further proceeded to threaten the claimant’s life by telling her he would greatly harm her if she ever revealed the incident to anyone. The claimant avers that following her second ordeal with the defendant, she became dejected, kept to herself and hated herself, developed utter loathing for everything around her and withdrew to herself and away from all spiritual activities of the church.

“The claimant avers that despite getting married, she continues to live in constant fear, suffers several series of mood swings, emotional and psychological distress, and also worries about her safety. The claimant avers that her marital sex life has been affected negatively as a result of her terrible experience with the defendant, thereby resulting in her continuous emotional and psychological distress, which has not ceased.”

FEDERAL GOVERNMENT’S RESPONSE TO NIGERIANS BEING ATTACKED IN SOUTH AFRICA

1. Nigeria is demanding compensation for family members of victims.
2. Nigeria is demanding justice via prosecution of those perpetrating these attacks.
3. The President has also dispatched a Special Envoy specifically to address these issues in South Africa and express Nigeria's outright displeasure and disappointment.
4. Nigeria condemns possible negligence on the part of law enforcement agents in South Africa and their failure to protect the lives and property of Nigerians.
5. Federal Government is drawing the line and saying this is no longer going to be tolerated.
6. This message has been passed to the South African Envoy this morning when the President directed the Foreign Affairs Minister to summon the ambassador of South Africa to explain the situation.
7. Vice President too has spoken very strongly about the matter, describing it as reckless, and demanding answers from those in authority in South Africa.
8. Nigeria is challenging South Africa to end this bigotry NOW!

Onyeama, has summoned the South African High Commissioner to Nigeria, Bobby Moroe, over the xenophobic attacks on Nigerians in South Africa.

The envoy was expected to meet with the minister by 11:00 a.m. on Tuesday.

A senior MFA official, Kimiebi Ebenfa, confirmed the development in a WhatsApp message.

It read, “I am directed to inform you that the Minister of Foreign Affairs has summoned the High Commissioner of South Africa for a meeting this morning by 11. The meeting was confirmed a few minutes ago.”

Onyema had said that the Federal Government would take “definitive measures” in the aftermath of xenophobic attacks on Nigerians in South Africa.

He was, however, silent on the measures that would be taken over the increasing violence against Nigerians and other foreigners in the country.

He described the attackers as mindless criminals, noting that the police intervention was ineffective.

Onyeama said this on Monday on his verified Twitter handle in reaction to the burning of Nigerian property by South Africans in Johannesburg, Marvel, Turfontein and Jamestown, on Sunday night.

READ: Nigeria’s economic growth slows for second quarter

Onyeama had tweeted, “Received sickening and depressing news of continued burning and looting of Nigerian shops and premises in #SouthAfrica by mindless criminals with ineffective police protection. Enough is enough. We will take definitive measures.”

The latest attacks on foreigners in South Africa started last week after a taxi driver was murdered by an alleged drug dealer in Pretoria.

Speculations that the alleged killer was a Nigerian sparked protest, looting and burning of foreign-owned businesses.

The police had struggled to bring the attacks under control.

Our correspondent reported that Onyema was also scheduled to meet with his SA counterpart to discuss the escalating xenophobic attacks.

*Beyond 10k TraderMoni Noise on Social Media*

By Oladele Peter

Petty traders are often those women and men who sell certain commodities which are predominantly not sold to the ultimate consumer by the formal sector, examples includes fruits, vegetables, pepper, sachet water, bread, and so on. Petty Traders are highly indispensable in the distribution system providing useful goods to the community especially the lower middle class and the poor. The major problem facing Petty Trading is CAPITAL in the form of loans, which they can’t get from banks.

The Nigerian government under the leadership of President Buhari and his vice Prof. Osinbjo came up with the strategy to fight Hunger, Poverty and Lack of capital by most petty traders; they introduced a Programme called TRADERMONI which is part of the Government Enterprise and Empowerment Programme (GEEP).

TraderMoni as a scheme has generated a significant amount of buzz and national conversation: from those who laud its impact to those who view it as politically motivated. TraderMoni is one of three microcredit products of the Government Enterprise and Empowerment Programme (GEEP).

GEEP is a microcredit programme that provides much-needed capital to traders, artisans, farmers, petty traders. It is one of the social intervention progammes of the Federal Government, it comprises of three products: MarketMoni, FarmerMoni, and TraderMoni. GEEP was initiated in 2016 by the Federal Government, with an understanding that there are over 30 million Nigerians at the base of the pyramid who are in active commercial activity but never have an opportunity to access credit.

Findings on the TraderMoni programme shows that it is being implemented by the Federal Government and the Bank of Industry to empower petty traders. Tradermoni is an interest-free loans of between N10,000 to N300,000. After you apply and you are pick, you get N10,000 and if you pay back N10,000 you get N15,000 till you reach the top of the ladder which is N300,000. As long as you keep paying back you will keep climbing the ladder.

Research conducted in Utako Market, Abuja, Ikotun Market in Lagos, Ochanja Market in Onitsha, Eke Awka in Awka and Kasuwar Yankaba in Nasarawa, Gusau Central Market and Kebbi Central Market (Through some research assistance) shows that many traders are benefiting from the TraderMoni programmes.

It was learnt that VP Osinbajo never shared cash in any of markets listed above. Traders confirmed that TraderMoni is paid into bank accounts or mobile wallets not in cash to petty traders, which they can cash on their own or with help of relatives. We also found some other Traders who initially denied benefiting from the programme till they were told we are here to fast track their next stage of the programme which is N15,000 and N20,000 respectively at which point their stories changed.

Furthermore, we deduced from the findings that petty trading activity is an important sphere of our economy which plays a significant role in both rural and urban economic life. This sector contributes to higher living standards and greater material prosperity in rural and urban areas by making the goods and services available to the consumers at the right times and at right places

Petty trading also provides employment and income to millions of people who would otherwise lack the means of survival. To some, it even also serves as a breeding ground for entrepreneurship. Therefore, The Federal government should not only increase beneficiaries but also speed up the process. The FG should also create more awareness on TraderMoni and even other parts of GEEP and even the NSIPs in general.

God Bless Nigeria

Oladele Peter writes from Ile-Ife, Osun State

*Who is Reno Omokri’s next victim?*

The word fraudster has a ring to it, somehow it sounds a lot nicer than thief. Reno Omokri, unfortunately is both. Yeah I am talking about the same Reno Omokri who claims to be a pastor yet we are yet to find anyone who actually attends his church or service programmes. (PS: the offer still waits for their identification. I dare say he’d be more than willing to push up such a person towards the top of his #RenoMoni fraud pyramid).

Much has been said about the fraudulent acts such as profiteering from the sale of books and tee shirts in Leah Sharibu’s name without as much as providing financial details to back up claims. First he allegedly said he transferred the monies made from the tees to her family then realizing the gaffe claimed that the donations were made directly to her father’s account.

On the book front, Reno said “the royalties spent exactly five minutes in his account before they were also transferred to her father”. What the people and by this I’m referring to his teeming followers want to see or read is;

Who was monitoring the time?

Are royalties a one off event?

What’s happened to the income from the book sold since the first payout was done?

For those interested in his other bold but outlandish claims, I would recommend you dig up his responses to #RenoUndarted.

We would like to see some sort of audit else this would continue to hang over him like the sword of Damocles.

Reno also regularly claims to be a bestselling author yet the said book which is his claim to fame accumulates dust on Amazon’s shelves.

Since a liar would always steal, remember when our mothers told us that? It’s not surprising that Reno Omokri is a thief. Yes I say it and it’s actually the main crux of my write up. A man with absolutely no scruples about dragging the title of Pastor into the mud apparently seeing as he thinks everyone else is like him with absolutely no compunction nor morals about stealing the identity of another albeit that of his nephew.
Sometimes in 2014, Reno Omokri who was at the time, the SA to the President on New Media ushered Nigeria into the now popular crime of Identity theft. In order to smear and slander the name of the then suspended governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Reno Omokri anonymously sent emails to editors across the country in the identity of his nephew, a certain Wendel Simlin with the email; wendellsimlin@yahoo.com.

To most persons Reno has always been a duplicitous character skilled in the dark arts but as we have come to find out he’s not very good at covering up his tracks or aligning his lies as those who investigated the issue then claimed they didn’t do anything special at all, just basic checks around the email and most crucially, the attached word document.

It was as simple as opening the attached word document and right clicking to pull up its properties. There it was – his name as the author and person who last saved it on Hewlett-Packard computer (this is automatically done when you use your computer to generate a document).

An online newspaper, Premium Times, who had received official emails from Reno Omokri in the past checked out previous email headers from him and compared it to this particular one from Wendell Simlin. They matched i.e. the emails were sent from the same computer/location.

But he is not one to be deterred. Religious baiting is a very dangerous thing to do in Nigeria but it is the main stay of Reno Omokri’s, I mean his modus Oparandi. Once the religious touch paper has been lit in Nigeria, no one really has any control over it and many lives could possibly be lost. The email sent out by Reno was dripping with Islamophobia and also contained outright lies and smears not just against SLS but against Alhaji Mutallab – a man who reported his own son to the American authorities when he noticed extremist tendencies in him.

Seems the latest feather he’s added to his cap of mischief, is taking on persons he believes are too relevant and then he tries to misinform the public and Christian bodies as he seeks to exploit them for personal gratification.

Well if he comes facing you as Reno the Fraud, let one fly and if he comes backing you as Reno the identity Thief, do hesitate to release the notch, for he only commeth to steal, deceive and destroy our relative peace.

Nicholas Adesina writes from Ibadan, Oyo state.