Nigerians are expressing mixed reactions to the purported news of Heritage Bank cutting ties with popular Nigerian entertainer, Oladapo Oyebanjo, known better as D’Banj over his alleged rape saga.
Although we cannot substantiate the alleged suspension of D’Banj by Heritage Bank as their Ambassador, the reactions from Nigerians on the alleged report comes after a few days of back and forth with the rape allegation involving D’Banj and one Seyitan Babatayo.
It also got worse when news broke yesterday that the Inspector General of the Nigerian Police, Mohammed Adamu, has ordered an investigation into the rape allegation.
While some Nigerians expressed worry and sadness over the suspension of the Ambassadorship deal with Heritage Bank, others from their tweets since on Friday into Saturday when the news broke seems to be mocking the Koko Master.
Some argued that D’Banj brought this to himself. Those in support of Seyitan Babatayo argued that his alleged move to intimidate and silence Seyitan by allegedly arresting her and her mother and also allegedly making her delete her tweets was what made Heritage Bank suspended him as their Ambassador.
Others said he should have allowed the court to decide the case, and not get her and her mother arrested, especially after suing her for over N100million and demanding for a public apology.
A twitter user whose reaction has been quite interesting, since the alleged arrest and release of Seyitan Babatayo, seems to be one of the forces behind the call for International brands to cut ties with D’Banj.
She/He continued thettweets on Friday night, praising Heritage Bank for making the first move, and calling others such as Global Citizen, United Nations and others to follow suit. She/He shared the following tweets:
@jerryfrankson: Thank you Heritage Bank, I mailed them from a dozen different emails yesterday. The fact that Dbanj used his influence to detain and silence the lady is ENOUGH REASON for every brand to drop him. #DbanjSuspended.
@jerryfranksonThis the link to sign the petition to
@UN@UNICEF_Nigeria 17k Signs and still counting. Remove Dbanj as your Ambassador, Dbanj upon accusations, detained and silenced a vulnerable lady for speaking up. This is not how to prove guilty. #DbanjSuspended
Some Nigerians seemed not bothered about D’Banj losing hid deal with Heritage Bank, as they dragged him. But others were against it, calling for support. See some of the tweets:
@VieArr: Heritage bank cutting ties with Dbanj should teach you a lesson that some people don’t really care about you, they are just sticking with you cos they benefit from you and once they sense that things are not going well for you, they will jump bus.. #DbanjSuspended
@bakaresimbiat
Replying to
@jerryfrankson: Men don’t want anythn bad to happen to their male counterpart like Dbanj. But they want bad things to happen to we women. They will support their fellow men even when they are wrong but they don’t want us to support our fellow women! Well, we women wil continue to stand together!
Thank you for speaking out and well done! I sent out some emails as well. No way we are letting rape culture thrive in our society. We will fight it till the very end!
@TweettrafikReplying to
@jerryfrankson@UNICEF_Nigeria ,please read your mails, thousands of Nigerians sent mail to the UN yesterday. Detaining a lady and silencing her is not a way to prove innocence #DbanjSuspended
@PatObi8: If D’banj or whatever they call him truly raped the lady, he should be stripe of everything and be thrown into jail. But if he didn’t and was accused wrongly, it will not be well with the lady forever. Rape is evil and accusing wrongly is more evil.
iamblaq@okhaemohReplying to
@jerryfrankson: Omo! You’re very very STOOPID! I repeat you’re very very STOOPID!! Even when there’s no hard evidence against
@iamdbanj and the court hasn’t made any judgement and you’re doing all these….. Since he’s been removed as the ambassador to the bank, DEM PAY YOU??
@Gabriel_Owi What does it profit you to pull down a man who hasn’t been proven guilty by a law court. Most celebrities were victims of such. Is this a result of failed trust in our judicial system, we must let justice be served appropriately.#DbanjSuspended
@RayoKasali How do you get justice for an alleged wrong by committing a fraudulent act? Now that Heritage bank has stripped him of his deal, I hope you’d be able to sleep at night knowing you took food from a man’s mouth If he’s guilty, let him face the music but only then.
@oma_oritse: Whether or not Dbanj is guilty of the accusations leveled against him, I honestly think the manner in which he handled it was careless. Heritage Bank is absolutely justified for wanting to dissociate themselves from this drama.