Nigerian musician said his celebrity photographer wife Busola Dakolo told him in 2018 about being allegedly raped by the founder and senior pastor of the Commonwealth of Zion Assembly (COZA) Biodun Fatoyinbo.

“She’s always told me I have something to tell you but she will burst into tears and I will tell her baby take your time,” Timi Dakolo said during a press conference on Sunday.

“She told me last year and if you can remember it was last year I posted that this place you call church is supposed to be a safe place.”

He said his wife has tried talking to him about it several times but would only cry or say nothing.

She eventually told him about the rape incidents and that prompted his flurry of social media posts about pastors and their atrocities in church.

He also emphasised that he has never met Fatoyinbo or received any gifts from him or being a member of his church

He said his fight is not against the church but a fight to show everyone who has been molested or intimated reasons to share their stories.

Busola Dakolo alleged that the pastor raped her for the first time at her parent’s home and at another time in a secluded road path. She said the incidents occurred before she turned 18 and added that she lost her virginity to him. She said she was younger than 18 years at the time she said she was raped.

Her allegations prompted a wave of protest on social media while protesters also marched on the church’s locations in Lagos and Abuja.

Fatoyinbo denied the allegations “in every measure”, saying, “I have never in my life raped anybody even as an unbeliever and I am absolutely innocent of this.”

The pastor also threatened a lawsuit and proceeded on “leave of absence” more than 48 hours after the allegations were made.

The claims have paved way for more allegations on social media from women abused or raped by people in authority in religious circles, which some have called Nigeria’s #MeToo moment. (The Guardian)