Rape saga: Singer Simi responds to criticisms over resurfaced old tweets of moments with children at mum’s day care centre
Nigerian singer Simisola Bolatito Kosoko, widely known as Simi, has addressed the criticism that trailed the resurfacing of tweets she posted more than a decade ago.
The backlash started after Simi made a strong remark stating that rapists should be “burnt and castrated” during the ongoing sexual assault case involving TikToker Mirabel, who later withdrew her allegations.
Her remarks sparked mixed reactions online, prompting some social media users to comb through her personal page, where they unearthed tweets dating back to 2012.
In some of the resurfaced posts, Simi mentioned a four-year-old having a crush on her and “acting like he wana loc lip,” while in another tweet, she joked about the child “trying to put hand inside my shet (sic).”
Reacting to this, Simi took to her X page to clarify the tweets.
She said, “I haven’t been on Twitter today, but someone brought a few of my old tweets to my attention, and I can’t not address it. 14 years ago, I was 23, so I was definitely not a child. I’m not here to make excuses because I don’t have anything to make excuses for. What I can’t let anyone do is twist my story to fit false narratives.”
She further explained, “In 2012, I lived and helped out at my mom’s daycare while hustling my music. I tweeted everything that happened in my life, as we all did at the time. Kids can be mischievous. If a child did something I found funny, I tweeted about it. Kids are cute and lovable. I want to hug, kiss, and cuddle them. I tweet about it. Nothing I tweeted was from perversion.”
Simi added, “I was not famous then, so maybe if I was, I would have understood that anything is open to interpretation, including being used falsely by a faceless mob. I’ve never been depraved in my life. You can retweet all the tweets in the world about me loudly crushing on people I admired or being a cheeky young woman. I wasn’t trying to hide it, because I have nothing to hide.”
She added that she has deleted some of her old tweets out of consideration for her family, while firmly maintaining her stance against sexual violence.
“I have always spoken against rape and sexual assault, even before you knew I existed. It’s not a costume I’m wearing, it’s who I am. I’ve never claimed to be perfect. I’ve never claimed to know everything. I said stop raping women. I stand by it.”