Journalist Kemi Olunloyo has reacted to a cease and desist order from the lawyers of Frank Amudo, a former manager of singer D’banj who has been accused of rape by Seyitan Babatayo.
In an exclusive interview with MyNigeria.com, Kemi Olunloyo stated that she has not been personally served the cease and desist order but only saw it on blogs.
She also likened the rape allegation against D’banj to that which was levelled by Busola Dakolo against Pastor Biodun Fatoyinbo of COZA.
On the order from Frank Amudo’s lawyers, Kemi Olunloyo said, “I haven’t heard of it. I woke up this morning and some blogs were trending it that I got a cease and desist order and that I’m being sued for N200 million. What do I have to say to that? You don’t put a cease and desist on an investigative journalist. I’m just doing my work. We got a cease and desist order from Ruggedman during Naira Marley’s case, it didn’t work. I called that lawyer, I said “you are an idiot. You are putting a cease and desist order out on blogs, you have not even served me. Do you know how the court process works?”. I recorded that lawyer and I disgraced him. That’s how the cease and desist order ended and that’s how this one is going to end. Frank Amudo’s lawyer should not place a cease and desist order on me, I’m an investigative journalist trained in the United States who also practised in Canada. I’ve been a journalist since 1994. Frank Amudo is very stupid. You do not provoke an investigative journalist. I have more stuff on Frank that I’m going to release on Twitter. I have a can of worms on him and I’m releasing it very soon. I will expose it to the media and in the courtroom. I’m not going to cease and desist. I’m going to continue the investigation and nobody is paying me for it.
She continued: “Why haven’t they served me these papers? They can’t say they don’t know where I am. They don’t need to know my location because such can easily be sent to me through direct message on social media or emailed to my publicist”.
On why she decided to take up investigation into the rape allegation against D’banj, Kemi Olunloyo recalled the case against Fatoyinbo. According to her, it can only be done by independent journalists because mainstream media outlets don’t give much attention to such.
“What will you do without independent journalists? You now want a rape story to sit down like Fatoyinbo’s case. No media outlet in the mainstream touched Fatoyinbo’s case. They would have destroyed that guy”, she said.
She also revealed that the initial police report in which Busola Dakolo said she was raped by Fatoyinbo on his car was later changed.
“The car did not exist, the baby did not exist. They allowed them to change the police report. Busola had no timeline. Six months later, Busola suddenly had the date of the rape. A police officer in Abuja contacted me. He said the head of the investigation is from Bayelsa which is where Timi (Busola Dakolo’s husband) is from. He allowed them to change the police report and added a date to it”, she said.
Kemi Olunloyo also revealed that she just got off the phone with D’banj who attested to all she revealed in her investigation on the rape allegation against him. She told him that she got her information from the lady who has been tweeting with the Twitter handle of his rape accuser, Seyitan.
“The girl contacted me yesterday saying “I’m very sorry. I’m the one that has been tweeting for Frank. He organized that we should tweet for Seyitan”. She said she got threatened to do the job and also got paid. When they started playing rubbish games with her, she decided to start using Seyitan’s handle to tweet in support of D’banj. She said she tweeted D’banj’s song in order to hurt Frank. At that point, I asked her “do you realize what you did was wrong because you gave D’banj and Seyitan’s side an impression that D’banj had kidnapped Seyitan and his people had hacked her account to promote his music, meanwhile you were the one that was doing it?”. She became afraid and begged me not to reveal her identity”, Kemi Olunloyo said.
Kemi Olunloyo then read the message the lady sent to her which revealed that Frank is only trying to extort money from D’banj and that Seyitan is his ex-girlfriend.
“Even Seyitan’s mum wanted to go and beg D’banj last week. She asked for D’banj’s mum but was denied access. D’banj didn’t rape Seyitan. I’ll like if you don’t expose my identity”, the message read in part.
Kemi Olunloyo then asked why one of the tweets on Seyitan’s handle reads that she’s putting everything behind her and moving on. In response, the lady said Seyitan told her to publish the tweet because she was becoming scared and wanted out of what Frank put her into.
Kemi Olunloyo said, “This is what happened to Busola Dakolo. When she wanted out of it, Timi threatened her saying “I will tell people that I am not the father of your son”. Recall that Timi had initially rejected his firstborn when his wife was pregnant with him before they got married. Busola was the personal secretary to a top officer at Zenith Bank. Timi said he believed that his girlfriend at the time was sleeping with her boss at Zenith Bank. That was why he denied the child which he told Vanguard in 2010. They later kept quiet on the matter and got married while Busola was pregnant. Those who interviewed Busola when she opened up on the alleged rape don’t know that part. Timi Dakolo threatened his wife saying “if you don’t go along with this thing that we want to do, I will tell people about our first son”. That’s why I’m still sitting here wondering whose son is this first son”.
