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This year, Busola Dakolo went on television and said that she had been raped twice as a teenager by her former pastor, Biodun Fatoyinbo, a church leader whose services draw thousands, and whose fans, admiring his flashy lifestyle, have taken to calling him “the Gucci pastor.”
When I met with Busola at her home in Lagos this summer, she said she'd kept the secret for so long that it had begun to burn inside her. Publicly announcing that she had been raped, she said, felt like a release from "bondage."
Busola's allegation against the pastor prompted a visit from Nigerian police, who told her she was being investigated in a case of criminal conspiracy.
(More on that here from @ruthmaclean at the Guardian https://theguardian.com/global-development/2019/aug/06/nigeria-metoo-moment-accuser-busola-dakolo …)
A few weeks later, the pastor returned to his pulpit, amid cheers from his congregation and support from a group calling itself the Social Justice League.
I visited Pastor Biodun's church in Abuja one Sunday. After services, his security chief declined to let me interview him.
Pastor Biodun said on Instagram that many people have used similar accusations to try to extort him and the ministry. “I have never in my life raped anybody even as an unbeliever,” he wrote earlier this year on Instagram.
Busola has definitely influenced the conversation around rape in Nigeria. After her interview, I heard that at least one group for survivors swelled past capacity. Esther Uzoma, a human rights lawyer, told me Busola quickly became an “icon” of every woman’s “secret pain.”
But even on the streets, I found a lot of skepticism toward her claims. Her critics said they were just applying appropriate skepticism to unproven allegations. Her supporters said the hostile reaction reveals just how difficult it is for women in the region to speak out.
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