The Lagos State Domestic and Sexual Violence Agency has referred the controversy over resurfaced tweets allegedly linked to singer Simi to the state 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 agency could not ignore the allegations circulating online.
The controversy began after Simi made social media comments condemning rape, urging men to stop raping women, suggesting that rapists should be castrated, and asserting that “almost every woman she knows has been sexually assaulted.” The remarks triggered widespread online debate.
Soon after, screenshots of old tweets—believed to date back to 2012 and 2013—surfaced on social media. Some of the posts appeared to reference children at her mother’s daycare, including comments 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 sparked heavy criticism from some social media users, who interpreted them as inappropriate, intensifying scrutiny of the singer.
In response, Simi addressed the issue on her social media platforms, explaining that the posts reflected her youthful experiences assisting at her mother’s daycare at the time. She maintained that the tweets were not written “from perversion” and said they had been misconstrued.
Speaking on the development, Vivour-Adeniyi said the agency had been closely monitoring the situation, which some online commentators have tagged “Simi Gates and Simi Darlington,” following the circulation of tweets said to date back to 2012 and 2014.
“In terms of Simi, I think they are calling it Simi Gates and Simi Darlington. Some people have been asking what are institutions doing? I can speak for what Lagos State DSV is doing.
“We’ve been observing and because we had seen some tweets as far back as 2012, some 2014, and then there were talks around certain tweets being doctored and all of that,” she said.
She explained that the agency decided to escalate the matter for further scrutiny by law enforcement authorities.
“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 stated.
According to Vivour-Adeniyi, the state safeguarding taskforce has also been informed.
“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 said.
She emphasised that the agency has a responsibility to initiate preliminary inquiries, noting that any potential prosecution would depend on the presence of a complainant.
“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.
