Biodun Fatoyinbo, the senior pastor of the Commonwealth of Zion Assembly (COZA), has stepped aside from the pulpit of the church.
In a statement released on Monday, he said the move was the advice of his mentors.
Mr Fatoyinbo, who is also the founder of the church has been a subject of public derision since Friday morning when a video interview in which a woman, Busola Dakolo, accused him of raping her, was published online.
Mrs Dakolo, the wife of musician Timi Dakolo, told YNaija that she was only 16 when Mr Fatoyinbo came to her family residence in Ilorin and raped her, deflowering her in the process.
Mrs Dakolo, now a mother of three, said the first encounter happened on a morning when Mr Fatoyinbo knocked on the door of her family home in Ilorin. The family had been a long time member of COZA, and they saw Mr Fatoyinbo as a diligent and decent figure.
“Immediately I opened the door, he just pushed me, he did not say anything, he did not utter any word, he just pushed me to one of the chairs in my living room,” Mrs Dakolo told YNaija.
“I saw him, he was removing his belt, he just said: ‘keep quiet, do what I want you to do and you will be fine,’” Mrs Dakolo said.
Mrs Dakolo said Mr Fatoyinbo told her after the alleged rape that she should be grateful that it was a man of God who did that to her.
She said the preacher raped her the second time within the same week on a deserted road.
Mr Fatoyinbo pushed back against the allegations on Friday, saying in an official church statement that he had never raped a woman “even as an unbeliever.”
The pastor threatened a lawsuit against Mrs Dakolo and others he accused of defaming his character, adding that many of the sexual misconduct claims he had faced over the years had come from scorned women within his ministry.
Nigerians have expressed enormous support for the Dakolos for their courage, and calls for Mr Fatoyinbo’s arrest and prosecution have also intensified on social media. He has also been asked to step down as the Senior Pastor of the Church.
