The Directorate of Citizens Rights (DCR) from the Ministry of Justice in Ekiti State has filed a lawsuit on behalf of Ekiti-born Damilola Adeparusi, popularly known as Chef Dammy, against Pastor Jeremiah Adegoke and the Ekiti State Police Command for alleged infringement of the chef’s rights.
In the suit filed at the State High Court and marked HAD|23, DCR also seeks compensation of N10 million for damages on behalf of the student chef.
The DCR also asked the court to enforce a restraining order to prevent Adegoke and the police from re-arresting Chef Dammy.
After attempting a cook-a-thon challenge to break the Guinness World Record in June, Chef Dammy rose to fame.
The lawsuit was filed barely a week after Chef Dammy was reportedly arrested on the order of Adegoke, who was her pastor.
Adegoke is the head pastor of Spirit Word Global Mission, an Ekiti-based church that reportedly sponsored Chef Dammy’s record-making cook-a-thon.
The controversy between Chef Dammy and her pastor started in October, after the 24-year-old raised alarm over alleged relentless threats and intimidation from individuals whom she tagged “people of God” and her pastor.
The 300-level Mass Communication student of the Federal University, Oye-Ekiti (FUOYE), said that she had been threatened and bullied, making her live in constant fear for her life.
Although the source of the feud between the chef and her once-supportive pastor is still vague, their dispute appears to have been a fallout of the cook-a-thon.
Following Chef Dammy’s public outcry, Adegoke, in a letter signed by his lawyers, Bisayo Sule & Co. legal practitioners, dated October 23, 2023, demanded a retraction of the alleged defamatory statement on social media, an apology to two widely read national dailies, and the payment of a sum of N22 million for damages.
He gave Chef Dammy seven days to comply with the demands or risk being sued.
However, in the suit filed by Olugbenga Akinlabi, the deputy director of citizens rights in DCR, Chef Dammy, was named as the applicant; Adegoke and Ajewole Samuel, the Ekiti State Commissioner of Police, and the Assistant Inspector General of Police, Zone 17 Akure, were named respondents.
The lawsuit seeks a declaration that the continued harassment, molestation, threat of arrest, and intimidation by the pastor and the Nigerian police infringe on the applicant’s fundamental human rights
