Rape allegation: Igwilo defends Bayo Adebowale, calls Sahara Reporters’ Journalists, Monkeys.

RAPE ALLEGATION: IGWILO DEFENDS BAYO ADEBOWALE, CALLS SAHARA REPORTERS’ JOURNALISTS, MONKEYS.

THE GRIEVOUS SIN OF CALUMNY AGAINST ONE OF MY INTELLECTUAL AND MORAL MENTORS

Dr. Bayo Adebowale is a great intellect not properly celebrated in Nigeria. But I celebrate him and his idea that the sound intellect is the moral intellect!

His candor and fatherly advice makes me adore him and respect him immensely!

The faceless devils at Sahara Reporters in their usual penchant to peddle lies and calumny have smeared the personality of Bayo Adebowale and they have steered the honest nest!

Sahara reporters abandoning all ethos of journalism are in the business of appropriating the mores of fake news and we read them and laugh! But to now spread fake news on such a literary figure as Bayo Adebowale is the Devil’s play!
They accused him of having carnal knowledge of all his daughter begetting children from the unions and then aborting the children in a ritualistic orgy!
This accusation is clearly designed to destroy, to calumniate through fake news, the main art of Sahara reporters.

As a person who has known Dr. Bayo Adebowale, I attest that the accusation is sheer STUPIDITY! All of Bayo Adebowale’s Children are well loved by him and they are all married. A person who wishes to know the truth can easily contact these children and ask after their father!
The writer in Bayo Adebowale must be weeping at the irony of it all. The very thing he condemns in his many Novels and poem and journals is what he is calumniated about!
His writings are always about progress! Progress as a moral idea, about transforming self and transforming society through the resuscitation of positive aboriginal culture!
His book African Melody is full of poems about progress, about valor, about morals, about beauty, respects, togetherness, forgiveness, love, children, music, Africa, strength, etc. That book represents his moral rigor and his intellectual candor!
His other books, Lonely Days, The Virgin, Out of his minds, The River Goddess, Perdition, Talent and other writings of short stories and hundreds of poems bear testimony to Bayo Adebowale’s support for human progress especially for moral soundness.
His huge UNESCO recognized Library in Adeyipo village, just outside Ibadan, Oyo State Nigeria, stands out as a testimony about the extent of his generosity!
He personally invest his resources to hold this library to offer unbridled African studies to ANYONE who may need serene country atmosphere to study, write and think! His library holds volumes we thought are extinct. He opened that library to help bridge the gap between the city and the village! This library remains a shining light for intellectual discussions and development and the monsters of gossip do not like this?
Who is angry about this and thought that calumny is a way out? These faceless bigots of morality will regret their actions!
We the intellectual children of Bayo Adebowale testify to his moral sense and refuse to be intimidated by wickedness of the faceless!
We invite ALL well-meaning Nigerians and friends from abroad to disregard the wickedness of this accusation and go ahead to continue to celebrate Bayo Adebowale, as usual, as a father of African literature and a Father of many children!

Long Live Bayo Adebowale, Long live African Storytelling and SHAME on the Monkeys at Sahara Reporters as they swallow back their poisoned banana!
By Malachy Igwilo, intellectual Son of Bayo Adebowale

Press statement by Bayo Adebowale's eldest child, Titilayo Olaleye (Mrs)

PRESS STATEMENT BY BAYO ADEBOWALE'S ELDEST CHILD, TITILAYO OLALEYE (MRS)

For the avoidance of any doubt, my name is Titilayo Olaleye (Mrs) (nee Adebowale, the eldest daughter of Assiciate Professor of Literature, Bayo Adebowale.

Yes, I am the eldest daughter of the great man, a wonderful father, a great family man respected and adored by millions of people across the world for his contributions to scholarship, literature and the good of humanity.
Let me also quickly state that I am also a successful wife to MY OWN husband, to whom I am happily married and with whom I happily live with our loving children. 

I need to emphasize these facts because of the blasphemy some people have been saying about my father, Associate Professor Bayo Adebowale. They said one accursed man raped all his daughters. To the greatest surprise of my siblings and other members of the family, the wicked people, who want to incur the wrath of God Almighty, linked this to my own father, especially on social media.
This has terribly saddened us, his children, because the allegation is false, callous and unspeakably debasing. 

Well, on the issue on the internet. I mean the false accusations to the father of all fathers, Our loving Dad, Our adorable Dad, a man of honour and integrity, Our Excellent Dad, Our Precious Dad, My able Dad, This man you are insulting is so dear to me and to all of us his children. Anybody who smears his name and reputation will see the other side of us.

The man you are accusing is my father. I'm his eldest child and therefore qualified to speak on behalf of the other children. In fact, I can confidently say that I am closer to him than any other child. I know my father more than anyone. He confides in me on all he does and he is never a kind of person who will contemplate an unholy and ruinous relationship with his children.

I was busy in the hospital taking care of him when this rumour was being peddled on Facebook, that was why my reply came late. I affirm to the public that we are all happily married. Our lawyers have swung into action on this rape accusation and soups soon get to the likes of Sahara and Femi Gorman and the bastard child they alleged could be involved.

Because they have declared war on our family, this is the beginning of the WAR.

Press statement by Professor Bayo Adebowale in response to rape allegation

PRESS STATEMENT BY PROFESSOR BAYO ADEBOWALE IN RESPONSE TO RAPE ALLEGATION

My attention has been drawn to a rumour and insinuations that a Professor of Creative Arts had canal knowledge of his daughters. The grave allegation has been wickedly and maliciously linked to my person on social media. This includes a satanic and libelous story in an online newspaper, SaharaReporters, which published the grave information without bothering to get the fact.

To say the least, I am alarmed and traumatised by the insinuations. I would have responded to the wicked rumour immediately it broke out but I did not get to know about it on time. A part of the reasons is that I’d been indisposed for some time. As a matter of fact, I had been hospitalised and so many people could not reach me. Even on their part, many of my family members, are equally traumatised by the allegation, deliberately kept away the information from me because they feared that it could worsen my health and even lead to a sudden death. I can only thank God that I am still alive to be able to boldly deny the shocking rumour, because if one had died in the last few days, the same wicked people would have said that one committed suicide to cover up the sacrilege.

Apart from having reached the climax of my profession and talent as some people have noted in their hasty, malicious and ungodly comments, I am truly blessed with children that include daughters who know me as a true father, who has never contemplated any unholy relationship with them for whatever reason. While I lost a daughter to the cold hands of death some years back, I still have daughters who are alive and doing well as individuals, as professionals and also as wives in their various matrimonial homes. The identities of my daughters are not hidden and if anyone bothers to know them and speak with them there is an opportunity to do so.

This, indeed, is what one expects any responsible person, whether as an individual, citizen journalist or a so-called online publication like SaharaReporters, ought to have done. Whatever stopped anyone from going after my children to ask them questions about the allegation that has nothing to do with me? Instead of doing so, the wicked ones went for my profile, which I built through the thick and thin, with a dint of hard work crowned by God’s mercy, and sought to establish me as that ruined person said to have raped her own daughters. Let me ask this question: if this kind of grave allegation is levelled against the father of any of those who have been mentioning my name in the context of the indicated sacrilege, will they just jump into attacking his personality or they will try to find out the fact of the matter? I could say I leave all of them to their consciences if such consciences are still alive, but I believe such a decision will not prevent nemesis from playing its role in the theatre of their lives.

I will not labour to begin to an analyse one after the other the issues raised in the stories circulating on social media. The reason is that they are definitely not my stories. They are not the stories of my families. I can only advise those who are truly agitated to go after seek the identity of such a man if he truly exists. Yet, I want to note that one of the things said about the man is that he has four daughters, that he impregnated the four daughters and caused them to have broken homes. 

Well, I am happy to note that this is not the statistic of my own God-given family. I have no daughters who've been raped and my own daughters are happily married and are in their husband’s homes. 

Of course, I know there will be further insinuations despite this statement of mine. Why I believe so is that some people who could be behind the genesis of the attempt to destroy my reputation may not stop at anything. While assuring anyone who may genuinely want further facts about me that the book of my life is a open one, I will also invoke the law to the last letter to protect my name and that of my family. My lawyers are studying everything that has been said about me concerning the matter and necessary actions are bound to be taken.

I thank everyone, within and outside the country, who have shown concern over the matter. A lot of people have reached or attempted to reach me. Some are even more devastated than I am, shattered not just by the heaviness of the allegation, but by the fear that such could be true. I however categorically say I am the Bayo Adebowale you have always known: a true father, a true teacher and cultural person who is alive to his moral responsibility within and outside his home. I have never sought or got any canal knowledge of my daughter.

Thank You and God bless all.

Allegations against me are false, baseless and untrue – Bayo Adebowale

ALLEGATIONS AGAINST ME ARE FALSE, BASELESS AND UNTRUE – BAYO ADEBOWALE

Dr. Bayo Adebowale, the popular author of the “Virgin” and the Founder of African Heritage Research Library and Cultural Centre (AHRLC), Adeyipo Village- the home of the first rural community-based African Studies research library has reacted to a false allegation levelled against him by some faceless and unknown individuals who recently uploaded a fabricated WhatsApp messages aim at damaging, tarnishing and defiling his hard-earned good name and reputation.

The fake news which recently surfaced on Sahara Reporters’s website (though has been removed now) that Dr. Bayo Adebowale raped all 5 of his daughters multiple times and impregnated them, such that four of the daughters had at least 3 abortions each was not only false but inflammatory and contemptuous statements.

Dr. Bayo Adebowale made this statement during the official visit of the national executive members of the Society of Young Nigerian Writers (SYNW) led by Mr. Wole Adedoyin, who is also the National Publicity Secretary (South) of the Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA).

Dr. Bayo Adebowale confidentially told SYNW National Executive members who paid him courtesy visit that the issue has been reported to the Police and they are doing their best to arrest the perpetrators of the evil act. He also said that the whole family met on Saturday including all his sons and daughters who all described the action by the unknown faces of fabricating fictitious falsehoods painted to tarnish their father’s image and reputation in the eyes of members of the general public as wicked and devilish.

The immediate past Director of the Center for Foundation Education (CENFED), Bells University of Technology, Ota, Ogun State however warned other fellow renowned writers to be very vigilant as such could also happened to any of them.

SYNW finally viewed with serious concern,  insinuations and lies being peddled against Dr. Bayo Adebowale all with the intent of spelling him backward and distracting his attention from the serious business of investing and propagatiing sound African education in Nigeria and on Africa Continent.

“We are therefore appealing to the Nigerian Police Force (NPF) to fast-track their research and bring the culprits to book. We are also appealing to the good people of the Southwest region and Nigerians in particular not to pay attention to the inflammatory and contemptuous statements recently made against Dr. Bayo Adebowale.”

Dr. Bayo Adebowale was born in Adeyipo Village, Ibadan. He had his early education at St.Andrew’s Primary School, Kufi 1 and Bamgbola (Igbo-Elerin), and the Local Authority Secondary Modern School, Aperin- all in Ibadan; before proceeding to St. Peter’s College, Ilesa and Baptist College Ede. Later, he gained admission to the University of Ibadan, graduating with B.A. (Hons) English (1974); Diploma in Applied English Lingustics (1976); Masters of Arts, English Stylistics (1978); and the University of Ilorin, where he had his Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D) in Literature in English (1997).

Dr. Adebowale worked at St. Mathia’s Busogboro; St. Michael’s Eko-Ajala; Baptist school, Ilawe Baptist School, Labi-Apasan; and Ibadan City Council School, Agugu. Later at St. Augustine’s Teachers’ College, Lafia (Benue-Plateau State), Government Trade Centre, Oyo; the then Oyo State Colleges of Education, Ilesa, St. Andrews Oyo, Ila-Orangun; and the Polytechnic, Ibadan, where he was at various times, a Head of Department, a Deputy Dean, a Dean, and a two-term Deputy Rector. He is also a former Director, Center for Foundation Education (CENFED), Bells University of Technology, Ota, Ogun State.

Dr. Bayo Adebowale is the author of several short stories published in anthologies, local and international papers, magazines and journals. He is the author of The Virgin; Out of His Mind; A New Life; Village Harvest; A Night of Incantations; Lonely Days; African Melody; Memories and Beyond Control. He edited Talent and Culture and Creative Arts Books 1-6.

Dr. Bayo Adebowale is the Founder Founder of African Heritage Research Library and Cultural Centre (AHRLC), Adeyipo Village- the home of the first rural community-based African Studies research library on the Continent. He holds the Chieftaincy titles of the Agbaakin of Akobo, Ibadan; the Otunba Atayese of Awo (Osun); and now the Balogun Agbasaga of Yoruba Land, conferred on him by His Royal Majesty, Oba Abdul-Wahab Kayode Adedeji Oyedotun, Arutu-Oluokun Bibiire 1, the Orangun of Ila.