FIJ
Reverend Paul Iranloye Adebayo Akinloye, the founder and proprietor of PAES Comprehensive Academy in Ogun State, has sexually abused some female students of his school on multiple occasions, FIJ can report.
An accountant by profession, Akinloye served as the 12th chairman of the Ota and District Society, a local branch of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN). He has served as a pastor at Mount Zion Anglican Church in Igberen, Sango Otta, Ogun State.
Registered on August 29, 2011, the school is located at Oremeta Street, off Idi-Iroko Road, Davol Bus Stop, Igberen.
During his administration of the school, the proprietor touched some of his female students inappropriately, a behaviour that some teachers in the school were aware of.
FIJ learnt that Akinloye would often invite his victims to his office or house supposedly for academic-related issues. Once the student got there, they would discover that his real motive was to make sexual advances towards them. The man in his sixties would begin touching their body.
Although talks of his sexual harassment of students had been rampant in the school for a while, a video of him emerged sometime in September panting down with a student.
Lying down on what appears to be a mattress in his room, Akinloye sports a heavy cotton light green cloth embroidered with a deep green pattern around the neck in the clip. Painted yellow, the room’s wall has a couple of clothes hanging on it.
Beside Akinloye is Esther Kolawole (not real name), who was a student at the time of the event. She was born in 2007. In that closed atmosphere, the proprietor molested the child.
Before Kolawole, the randy proprietor has a long record of sexually preying on some other students. Kolawole’s brother confirmed this when FIJ called him on Tuesday.
“This is not the first time he is doing it. He has been doing it for years,” the victim’s brother said.
Although Kolawole’s brother promised to send his mother’s phone number for details on the actions taken so far, he had yet to do that at press time.
In a voice recording obtained by FIJ, the proprietor confirmed he was the man in the video. He said it was Kolawole who chose to “caress” him.
In Akinloye’s words, “She got hold of me. I did not hold her. As you can see in the video, she was the one playing with me. The fact is, there was no sexual intercourse between us. She was only caressing me.”
“SHE WAS ONLY CARESSING ME”
In the voice recording at FIJ’s disposal, Akinloye owned up to his illicit engagement with Kolawole, claiming it was a “planned work” against him, saying the girl was using the video to “extort money” from him through blackmail.
But there is enough evidence that it was not an isolated case.
“The message that came before that video shows that it was a planned work to extort me (sic). Asking me to send N10,000 to her and giving me a deadline, and this is somebody who has been coming to me for assistance for a long time,” Akinloye said.
“But over a period of time, she said could not enter the school again and could only come to me while at home. Mrs Adebayo encountered her on the way. So, I didn’t know it was a planned work they had for me.”
In his lawyer’s opinion, according to Akinloye, if the family did anything after appeasing them, it could be seen as “blackmail”.
“And that is why she got hold of me. If you watched the video, you will see that she was the one holding me. I was not the one who got hold of her…. There is nothing I am lying about. But I tried to seek legal advice and I was advised to appease them. But they said if it goes beyond that, it is a blackmail,” he said.
“She asked me for N10,000 in the morning. She sent me a video that I should watch where she was playing with me. Just like a flash, she said the money had changed to N15,000 and said I have a reputation to save.
“She quickly deleted some chats, about three chats. I had to call her mother. And her mother warned that she better not try what she was trying to do.
“Her mother came to me this evening and asked me to assure her that nothing bad would happen to her daughter and I assured her that I won’t do anything to jeopardise her safety except she wishes me evil.
“Every weekend, this girl would be asking for money from me, prompting me to ask her to what use was she putting the money. It would have been reasonable if was in school. She said her father has two wives and that she is not being fed properly. There are a lot of conversations on my phone too. I don’t delete messages on my phone; I am good at that.
“You know you can ‘delete for all’ [on WhatsApp]. She swiftly deleted some [messages], but I screenshot some when she started threatening me. I told her that if she thinks using coercion to collect money from me can work, she’s delusional. I did not touch her, she was the one touching me and the video confirms that.”
Records of his chats with the girl on WhatsApp contained various explicit words and innuendos.
Efforts to get Akinloye’s comment for this story proved unsuccessful.
FIJ contacted Amowoyagi, a woman who claimed to be the school’s secretary, on November 13 and she promised to relay FIJ’s message to Akinloye. It is unclear if she did so.
Earlier, FIJ had dialled Akinloye’s number on November 12 but he did not answer his calls. The calls were followed by a text message and messages on WhatsApp. Akinloye read FIJ’s inquiry on WhatsApp but he did not respond to them. Subsequent calls to his line on separate days showed “line busy”.
“YOUR DEFENCE IS VERY, VERY WEAK”
FIJ heard Akinloye try to defend himself in an audio clip.
The woman with whom Akinloye spoke said his defence was watery especially if it is established that the girl was under 18, clarifying that “sexual intercourse is not the only evidence of sexual harassment”.
Being an elderly man, the woman addressed Akinloye as “Baba” and “Daddy” throughout the conversation.
The woman: Baba, I have heard your own side. But on a personal ground, your defence is very weak. The first question is, how old is that girl? If she is not 18 yet, you have no defence. If she was below 18, you have no defence. Second, that thing happened in a closed place which shows it is a room. Was it your room?
Akinloye: It is my room. It is my house. She came to me inside my room.
Woman: Daddy, I am just telling you this. You have no reason to take her to your room. Before you engage a lawyer to defend you, you should know where your case stands. What I want to emphasise here is that, if that girl is under 18, there is a problem.
Another thing is that before she blackmailed you, the event had taken place. And you are the person in the picture. You are the person in the video. She is not your wife, how does she have access to your private part? That defence is very, very weak, sir.
In the video I saw, I did not see the girl’s nakedness. I am just doing an analysis for you so that even if you are going to get a lawyer, you will know how to build your case. This is not a matter of “I leave everything to God to judge”. If the rule of law judges this, it will be damaging.
Akinloye: What should I do, ma?
Woman: As it is, the video is still flying between students because it was a student who sent it to me. You know electronic transfer is evidence that cannot be erased even if you deny it.
Aside from the video, I got other message screenshots where you were texting the girl on WhatsApp and you mentioned that the girl is your lover and other explicit language.
Akinloye: There is none of my current students that can say I am dating her again. However they try, I don’t fall victim.
Woman: I just pray that the girl in the video which shows sexual interaction is not under 18. My major fear is, even if you see the girl’s parents and settle it amicably, how do you erase this thing (the video) from the public? Because it is very damaging.
I want you to remember the issue of the professor at the University of Ife [Obafemi Awolowo University], whom a girl audio-recorded. By the time she leaked it to someone on social media, look at the effect it had on the man. If we assume it would remain within the school environment and it gets to social media, what would you say? That’s my fear.
Akinloye: That is why I am asking how do you think I can handle it?
Woman: Honestly, I am confused. It must not get to social media.
Akinloye: The girl has been using it to collect money from me.
Woman: That is a non-issue, Daddy. Society won’t accept that as an excuse from you. Even if you say she wants to use it to blackmail you, it won’t still stand for you. This evidence is too strong. The only grace I am wishing you is for her to be above 18. It must not get to social media.
Akinloye: The fact is, there was no sexual intercourse between us. She was only caressing me.
Woman: Daddy, that is even enough. Intercourse is not the only evidence of sexual harassment. In law, touching the breasts, sucking the breasts is also part of evidence. For her to have even had access to hold your private part is also evidence. It’s not the intercourse that matters now.
ONE OTHER VICTIM
A 2008-born Kudirat Bello (not real name) was almost raped but for her firmness in rejecting Akinloye’s unholy advances.
During school hours when she was still in PAES Comprehensive Academy, Akinloye would frequently invite Bello to his office and explicitly tell her to touch or kiss him with a financial inducement.
“They might have consented to it. Baba tried it with me also but I rejected it. The first time he tried it with me, he wanted to kiss. I told him that he could not kiss me. He then said, is it not a fatherly kiss? I declined,” Bello confided in a source.
“He [Akinloye] used to call me to his office almost every day. In his office one day, he said I should touch him. I said for what? He then said he needs someone to touch him and that if I do, he will give me money.”
But Bello said she successfully resisted the proprietor.
“In my mind, I was asking myself if this man was okay. I just told him that if I need money, I will tell him. He said he knew I needed money; that the money I was bringing to school was not enough. I said I am not complaining. That day, he even tried to force himself on me. At that point, I flared up,” she said.
“In my own case, I spoke up. I told Mrs Adebayo [Opemipo Adebayo, the school’s Vice-Principal] and other people. Let me even add this; he asked me to move close to see something on his phone. It was nude photos he was showing me. He was now saying the reason he saved them on his phone was to know more about females.
“When we told Mrs Adebayo, she asked if we could say it to Baba’s face. And I said yes. When we got to his office, I was the only one who talked.”
Adebayo declined to comment on this story when FIJ called and texted her on November 12, repeatedly insisting to know how FIJ got her number.
“Please, how did you get my number? Who gave you my number?” she wrote on WhatsApp.
One of Akinloye’s former students whose name is withheld said they believed the proprietor had not stopped abusing his students.
“I strongly believe the proprietor has not stopped molesting his female students. I heard about a number of such cases when I was a student at the school. If he was not made to face the consequences of those ones, nothing could have stopped him from engaging in such acts,” they said.