Dbanj’s Rape Allegation Has Taken An Interesting Turn For All The Wrong Reasons

We earlier reported that Dbanj had been accused of rape on Twitter by a lady @Seyitannn_.

What has followed since then has been nothing short of a flagrant abuse of power. Here is how the events have played out so far:

On the 3rd of June, 2020, Seyitannn_ accused Dbanj of raping her in her hotel room at Glee Hotel after his concert. According to her, he had obtained her room key without her knowledge and had proceeded to let himself into her room where she had retired to after the concert.

Following this accusation, Dbanj and his legal advisers released a statement stating that this accusation was false and asked Seyitannn_ to retract her statement. Failure to do so was to attract the “full weight of the law”.

Dbanj Hires Renowned Lawyer, Chief Mike Ozekhome SAN , OFr, Ph.D as regards his alleged Rape Case !!! pic.twitter.com/tZfx1pvDWj

— Bronks & Montgomery (@bronksandmonts) June 16, 2020

One would think that Dbanj and his expensive legal team would be knowledgeable enough to know that “full weight of the law” does not involve an abuse of power. In fact, “full weight of the law” means you would then proceed to sue her and let the Nigerian courts be the judge of this matter.

But alas, that was not to be the case, as the next series of incidents that followed could only have been thought out by a dense human.

Yesterday, the 17th of June, 2020, investigative journalist, Kiki Mordi raised the alarm that Seyitannn_ had been arrested and was being detained at a police station in Sodipo. According to her, Seyitannn_ was being refused access to her lawyers and had actually been detained alongside her mother.

Guys, do you know what’s happening to seyitann?
Not only is Dbanj bullying and trying to silence his victim, he’s also doing the same to her entire famil, seyitan is still in custody, they’re making her delete tweets .#justiceforseyitan. https://t.co/6rabjTtAeu

— N’kechinyere (@soph_minnie) June 17, 2020

Seyitannn_’s followers could attest to the fact that her tweets were being deleted in a move to get her to retract her statement. At the end of the day, she was released from the station or so we thought.

Today, we woke up to news about Seyitannn_’s disappearance. Apparently, she had not been reachable since her supposed release yesterday.

Turns out she was unlawfully detained through the night according to Oluwaseun Ayodeji Osowobi, founder of Stand To End Rape. But for the outrage on social media and the actions of Oluwaseun Ayodeji Osowobi, Kiki Mordi and Kadaria Ahmed, Seyitannn_ just might have spent another night today in unlawful detention.

Seyitan is fine everyone. She just wants to be alone, gather her thoughts together and recover from her overnight experience in @PoliceNG’s cell. Thank you so much for your calls, advocacy and support.💜

— Oluwaseun Ayodeji Osowobi (@AyodejiOsowobi) June 18, 2020

Now to the crux of the matter. Why was Seyitannn_ unlawfully detained? Why was she made to spend a whole night in the Nigerian Police Cell? Why are not enough people and/or celebrities not speaking out about this matter? Since when did “full weight of the law” mean unlawful detention?

It is not far fetched that a man who can go to this extent to bend the law to suit him can also bribe or try to get a person’s hotel room key without her consent. I hope people can see why women rarely report their cases to the police. This is just one woman and we know about this case because of the platform on which the allegation was made and the profile of the people involved. Now imagine what happens on a daily basis to Nigerian women who have nobody to stand up for them. Imagine what happens to Nigerian women who have to consider the amount of humiliation their families and loved ones may face if they come out with their story. Imagine how many women are actually killed because they outed their abuser.

Nigeria is no country for a woman. There are just not enough laws to protect us, and the men are complicit. Think about it for a minute, every woman knows another woman who has been raped, abused, violated in one form or another, but absolutely no man knows another man who is an abuser or a rapist.

For those asking what if it turns out that Seyitannn_ accused Dbanj wrongly, I would say that then she should be made to face the law according to the Nigerian constitution and also everyone responsible for the unlawful detention of Seyitannn_ should be made to dance to the tune of the music. There should be repercussions for this sort of behavior. This is 2020 not 1990.

Some people have started a petition to the United Nations to remove Dbanj from the role of a Youth Ambassador here.

It is high time we decide as a people, the kind of men and women we want to emulate and the kind of people we want in positions of power.

Read Also: #NoMore: Why These Sexual Assaults Must Not Be Covered Up! By Ireti Bakare-Yusuf

Blessing Iyamadiken

Blessing Iyamadiken loves the art of storytelling and enjoys creating all types of content from news to entertainment. She is also a feminist and very passionate about Gender Equality. In her spare time, she loves to read or binge on Netflix.