The United Nations (UN) has disassociated itself from popular Nigerian musician, Oladapo Oyebanjo better known as DBanj, stating that he is not their ambassador.
The Nigerian singer was recently accused of rape by Miss Seyitan Babatayo, a matter which has prompted the order of an investigation from the office of the Inspector-General of Police, Mohammed Adamu.
The musician, however, denied the allegations leveled against him and asked his accuser to make a public apology and also pay him the sum of N100m in damages.
Some policemen allegedly acting on the instruction of Dbanj detained Seyitan for over 24 hours and intimidated her, making her delete all chats, social media posts, and other vital information from her phone.
This events led to over 22,000 Nigerians signing a petition on Change.org as of June 24, 2020 to strip him of his supposed United Nations Youth Ambassador for Peace.
In 2012, D’Banj’s publicists had claimed that the musician was the first Nigerian to be appointed a UN Youth Ambassador for Peace.
Reacting to an inquiry by PUNCH on the status of this purported ambassadorship, the UN replied saying that the singer is not their ambassador. The UN said;
“I would like to confirm that the said Mr Oladapo Oyebanjo aka D’Banj is not a UN Ambassador. The title was accorded to him by an obscure UN youth association which has nothing to do with the United Nations. I hope this clarifies.”
Earlier today Seyitan who accused Dbanj of rape released a public statement through her lawyers, where she revealed that the singer’s team asked her to tell the world it was all a publicity stunt.
“I was released from custody after being made to sign a gag order by the Police and Dbanj team, and could only post on social media what has been approved by Dbanj’s team. I spent the night in a location of Dbanj’s team choosing, which was not made known to the public” the statement partly reads.