Over the past few days, blogosphere, indeed, the entirety of social media has been awash with stories of a purported rape incident involving Mr. Inetimi Alfred Odom, the artiste popularly known as Timaya and a Ms. Sheila who is based in Atlanta, U.S.A. When the story broke, two of Nigeria’s foremost bloggers, Linda Ikeji and Stella Dimoko-Korkus reached out to Timaya who is still in the United States of America to get his own side of the story. Good enough, the timely reaction on these blogs helped to considerably douse the situation.
However, we feel that it is expedient and expected that we reacted formally to the story. Timaya did have consensual sex with Sheila who had been a friend on Instagram for some months. He never denied this even in the recordings she released. There was no rape or forceful sex in any form. Timaya dares her to provide any evidence of either of this. It was Timaya that reported to the hotel security, not the other way round. The only time Timaya could be heard begging was when she started talking about his career, which he jealously and fiercely guards.
It is important to note that Timaya is a God-fearing man who has two beautiful daughters that he dotes on unreservedly and loves unabashedly. He is also known to support the causes of Niger Delta women without making a song and a dance of it. With his fame and fortune, sound health and profound understanding of the American judicial system, Timaya could never have been found in the scenario mischievously fabricated by Ms. Sheila.
Noteworthy is that Timaya is still in the U.S in continuation of his performance tours. And his legal team has swung into action with a view to clearing his name. We thank Timaya’s avid fans and followers across Nigeria and beyond for their outpouring of support and especially for being able to discern that the whole issue is just a premeditated attempt at smearing a global brand name consecrated on sheer creativity, relentless enterprise and continual evolution and steadfastness.