SINGER Oladapo Oyebanjo, popularly known as D’Banj D Kokomaster, has filed a N1.5 billion lawsuit against Seyitan Babatayo, for falsely accusing him of raping her in a Lagos hotel in 2018.
In the suit filed on his behalf by Mike Ozekhome, his lawyer, the singer is asking the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), High court sitting in Abuja to order Babatayo to write a letter of apology for the accusations levelled against him.
D’Banj argued that the accusation has caused him embarrassment, marital disharmony and psychological trauma, while he asked the court to grant him N1 billion for defamatory damages over her tweets on the alleged rape incident.
“An order directing the defendant to pay the claimant, the sum of #1, 000,000,000.00 (One Billion Naira) only, representing general damages over the untold embarrassment, derision, public ridicule, odium, obloquy, marital disharmony, mental agony and psychological trauma which the defendant’s tweets and publication have caused the claimant,” a section of the lawsuit reads.
For costs, he had incurred the singer also requested for an additional N500 million for aggravated, punitive and exemplary damages.
It was first alleged by Benjamin Ese, a modelling agent that D’Banj raped his friend on December 31, 2018, at Glee Hotel in Victoria Island, Lagos.
Babatayo, however, corroborated the claim by identifying herself as the lady before reeling out her account on how the incident transpired on Twitter insisting that D’Banj issue a public apology to her through her lawyers.
On June 15, D’Banj, through his lawyer, Ozekhome, threatened to sue Babatayo and demanded N100 million as compensation for falsely accusing him of rape to be paid within 48 hours or risk legal action.
The Inspector-General of Police, Mohammed Adamu, had last month ordered an investigation into the allegations levelled against D’Banj by Babatayo but the outcome were yet to be made public.
On June 23, Babatayo released a statement through Stand To End Rape, where she narrated her ordeal since she went public with her accusation.
She also recounted her ordeal in the hands of police when she was reportedly arrested and detained on June 16 based on a complaint by D’Banj.
Amos Abba is a journalist with the International Center for Investigative Reporting, ICIR, who believes that courageous investigative reporting is the key to social justice and accountability in the society.