The Lagos State Domestic and Sexual Violence Agency has referred the controversy over resurfaced tweets allegedly linked to Simi to the Commissioner of Police for preliminary investigation.
The agency’s Executive Secretary, Lola Vivour-Adeniyi, disclosed this on Thursday during an interview on Channels Television, stating that the allegations could not be ignored.
The controversy began after Simi posted comments on social media condemning rape, urging men to stop sexually assaulting women, suggesting castration for rapists, and claiming that “almost every woman she knows has been sexually assaulted.” Her statements sparked widespread online debate.
Soon after, screenshots of old tweets believed to date back to 2012 and 2013 surfaced online. Some posts appeared to reference children at her mother’s daycare, including remarks such as “love to kiss d kids at my mum’s daycare – they’re super adorable and I’m crazy abt ’em” and “Why this 4yr old boy tryna put hand inside ma shet????? Ogbeni wash it oh!”, among others.
The resurfaced tweets drew intense criticism from social media users, with some interpreting them as inappropriate and generating significant backlash against the singer.
Responding on her social media page, Simi said the tweets reflected her youth and experiences helping at her mother’s daycare. She insisted the posts were not written “from perversion” and argued they had been taken out of context.
Vivour-Adeniyi said the agency had been monitoring developments surrounding what some online commentators have dubbed “Simi Gates and Simi Darlington,” following the circulation of tweets said to date back to 2012 and 2014.
She explained that the agency decided to escalate the matter for further scrutiny.
“But what we’ve done is to actually refer the case to the Commissioner of Police to at least conduct some preliminary investigation. As you’ve said, there are also reports that this may have happened in a creche managed by her mom. And so issues of safeguarding and child protection concerns have been raised,” she said.
According to her, the state safeguarding taskforce has also been notified.
“In Lagos State, we have the taskforce saddled with the responsibility of implementing the safeguarding and child protection order and that the taskforce has been briefed on this and preliminary investigations are ongoing,” she added.
She stressed that the agency has a duty to begin preliminary inquiries, noting that prosecution would depend on the presence of a complainant. She urged anyone affected to come forward to provide statements.
“For the Simi case, we cannot act like we have not seen this. And so we have a duty to at least commence preliminary investigation. Is there any survivor? Because the truth of the matter, it’s going to be very difficult to prosecute the lady without a survivor being present.
“A victim of whatever it is — is it sexual abuse, is it defilement, is it sexual assault by penetration and what have you — so it’s to start the process, encourage anybody who was allegedly sexually assaulted by Simi to please come forward and ensure that their statement is taken and then we know where we’re going to on the matter,” she added.