By Ayo Kehinde
Protesters under the #ChurchToo Movement on Sunday made good their threat to protest at the Commonwealth of God Assembly, COZA over rape allegation against Pastor Biodun Fatoyinbo. The church is located at Guzape Hills, Asokoro Extension, Guzape, Abuja.
But the protesters who started their march on the church from the NNPC patrol fulling station at Guzape met a wall of police and other security men who had been detailed to maintain peace at the Church premises. Masked men from the DSS condoned off the area, before the arrival of the protesters who kept to their dress code of white top and carried banners and posters that detailed their grievances: “ “YOUR PASTOR IS NOT GOD”; “NO TO SEXUAL ABUSE IN THE CHURCH”; “THE CHURCH SHOULS BE A SAFE HAVEN”, “ISTAND WITH BUSOLA DAKOLO”, and “GOD CAN FORGIVE YOU BEHIND BARS”.
The protesters’s move has begun to yield results, at least considering the response from the organisation covering church administration in Nigeria, CAN.
Bowing to pressure from Nigerians, the Christian Association of Nigeria, CAN, whose Secretary had initially said in his reaction that the organization was concerned only with inter-religious affairs, has agreed to wade into the festering case.
Its President, Rev Samson Ayokunle, said the organization would meet with the branch of the group to which COZA belongs, the Pentecostal movement of Nigeria. The meeting is expected to hold on Sunday.
Mrs Busola Dakolo, mother of three, a photographer and wife of musician, Timi Dakolo, has accused Fatoyinbo of rape.She is the second high profile person after Ese Walter to accuse Fatoyinbo of rape. Walter did so in 2013 but it was hushed and swept under the carpet.
But as many as 30 women who claimed they had had the same deal in Pastor Fatoyinbo’s hands have threatened to join Dakolo should the pastor carry out his threat to sue his most recent accuser, whose accusation has instigated the current protests.
