The Senior Pastor of the Commonwealth of Zion Assembly (COZA), Biodun Fatoyinbo is being held in Police custody over the rape allegations leveled against him by Busola Dakolo, a photographer and wife of popular Nigerian singer, Timi Dakolo.
Punch Newspaper reports that the pastor was invited for questioning and he’s being probed at the Force Criminal Investigation Department, Garki Area 10, Abuja.
Police invitation is coming barely a week after the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria (PFN) disclosed that the COZA Pastor failed to appear before its panel investigating the rape allegation against him.
In his reaction, Fatoyinbo stated that he shunned the PFN’s invitation based on the advise of his lawyers saying doing so might be termed as prejudice.
Busola, in June, alleged that Fatoyinbo raped her twice in a week when she was still a teenager.
Busola’s rape allegations sparked a wild outrage with rights activists staging protests at COZA premises in Lagos and Abuja.
The Pastor however, denied the rape allegations and threatened to sue his accusers. He also stepped aside from the pulpit but returned on August 4.
While the outcome of the Nigeria police investigation is yet to be known, Force PRO, Frank Mba disclosed that the invitation of Fatoyinbo was proof that the police had not swept the matter under the carpet.
“We have done a whole lot of background investigations and spoken to a whole lot of people before now. It was a deliberate investigative procedure to bring him last. Although we may invite others later depending on how investigations go.
“We were not in a hurry to bring him because we wanted to have enough background information that would be used in interrogating him. We have done an extensive investigation.” Mba said.