FATOYINBO REPLIES: SAYS BUSOLA DAKOLO'S PRAYERS IN COURT ARE 'UNGRANTABLE', 'STATUE-BARRED'

Busola Dakolo (Left) | Biodun Fatoyinbo (Right) 

The Senior Pastor of Commonwealth of Zion Assembly has filed a counter-claim at the High Court of the FCT, Abuja, in response to the suit filed against him by Busola Dakolo who alleges that she was raped by the clergy man about 17 years ago.

According to reports, in his preliminary objection filed at the High Court on Friday, September 20, 2019, Fatoyinbo says that the prayers by Dakolo in the suit are "ungrantable" and "statute-barred", having not been filed within three years of the occurrence of the event complained about.

He therefore urged the court to dismiss the suit without need to hear its substance, describing the it as frivolous and a palpable abuse of court process.

His team of lawyers led by Dr. Alex Izinyon (SAN), maintained that the suit could not be pursued, while her allegation of rape against the cleric and her claim that the pastor caused her emotional distress remain a subject of Police investigation.

He also accused the plaintiff of an attempt to scandalise and embarrass him by going to the Press about the suit before even serving it on him.

In a 14-paragraphed affidavit that was deposed to by one Ademola Adetuberu who identified himself as Executive Senior Assistant to Pastor Fatoyinbo, he told the court that the substratum of the claimant’s suit was “the mere purported allegation of emotional and psychological distress as a result of the said purported mere allegation of rape against the Defendant”.

‘That I am aware that the Claimant made an allegation of rape and emotional distress before the Nigeria Police Force against the Defendant which is still a subject of investigation”.

He told the court that Mrs. Dakolo and her lawyer, had, after they filed the suit, leaked the documents to both electronic and print media organizations, with the story widely shared on the internet “to embarrass and scandalise the Defendant”.

Consequently, in his counter-claim, Pastor Fatoyinbo prayed the court to award a cost of N50m, jointly and severally against the Claimant and her Solicitor.

Busola sued Fatoyinbo before the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory in Abuja for allegedly raping her in 2002, an incident she claimed had adversely affected her marital life.