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The Lagos State Domestic and Sexual Violence Agency has referred allegations stemming from resurfaced social media posts linked to Nigerian singer Simisola Bolatito Kosoko, known professionally as Simi, to the Commissioner of Police for preliminary investigation, as two federal and state agencies simultaneously escalate child protection reviews into decade-old comments the singer made while working at her mother’s daycare facility.
Executive Secretary of the Lagos State DSVA Lola Vivour-Adeniyi confirmed the referral on Thursday during an appearance on Channels Television’s Morning Brief programme, saying the agency had been monitoring the situation before deciding it could no longer remain passive. The referral marks the most concrete institutional step taken thus far in a controversy that erupted last week and has since drawn in multiple government bodies at the state and federal level.
The sequence of events that led to the investigation began not with the tweets themselves but with Simi’s public comments on sexual violence.
The controversy originated after a TikTok user identified as “Mirabel” claimed she had been raped in her apartment, a claim that generated significant public sympathy and calls for accountability. Simi, who is among Nigeria’s most prominent recording artists, joined the public conversation, condemning sexual violence and calling for rapists to be castrated. The claim by Mirabel subsequently turned out to be fabricated. In the backlash that followed, social media users began excavating Simi’s post history and surfaced a series of posts from around 2012 and 2014, which they interpreted as inappropriate references to children at her mother’s daycare.
Among the posts cited in public circulation was one dated March 14, 2012, in which Simi allegedly referenced a four-year-old boy named David, describing him as having a crush on her and acting as though he wanted to kiss her while placing his head on her lap.
A separate post appeared to reference a child attempting to place his hand on her body. Critics accused her of applying uneven scrutiny to false allegations while her own past conduct was simultaneously under question. Questions also emerged online about whether some of the circulating screenshots had been doctored, a matter Executive Secretary Vivour-Adeniyi said had been taken into account.
Simi responded publicly on Sunday, February 22, saying the tweets had been brought to her attention and that she felt compelled to address the issue.
She said she was 23 years old at the time and was living and assisting at her mother’s daycare while building her music career. She said she had tweeted routinely about daily experiences, including moments involving children, and that the posts had been misinterpreted.
“Nothing I tweeted was from perversion,” she said. She also deleted a number of older posts, with her management saying the deletions were intended to protect her family rather than conceal anything.
Read Also: Ogun Police Deny Arresting TikToker Who Alleged Rape
The DSVA said it had monitored the developing situation before concluding it had a legal and institutional obligation to act. “As for the Simi case, we cannot pretend that we have not seen these reports. We have a duty to at least begin a preliminary investigation,” Executive Secretary Vivour-Adeniyi said. She confirmed that the referral to the Commissioner of Police was in place and that the state’s dedicated child protection taskforce, responsible for implementing Lagos State’s Safeguarding and Child Protection Order, had also been briefed and was conducting parallel preliminary inquiries.
The DSVA simultaneously called on the Ogun State Government to open its own preliminary investigation, citing reports that the daycare facility where the alleged interactions took place may have been located in Ogun State rather than Lagos.
Vivour-Adeniyi said authorities have a responsibility to take allegations of abuse or misconduct seriously the moment they surface. “Once allegations of abuse or misconduct surface, authorities have a responsibility to take them seriously,” she said.
At the federal level, the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons issued a public notice on Tuesday, February 24, stating its readiness to investigate credible reports of child sexual abuse and misconduct in daycare settings across Nigeria, and urging anyone with factual information, evidence, or direct knowledge connected to the viral posts to come forward confidentially. Although the notice did not name Simi directly, it was widely understood to be connected to the controversy. NAPTIP subsequently faced public criticism from social media users who accused the agency of applying inconsistent standards compared to its handling of a separate, high-profile case involving musician Speed Darlington, against whom NAPTIP had moved more visibly and quickly.
Read Also: NAPTIP To Probe Alleged ‘Child Sexual Abuse’ By Singer Simi
Vivour-Adeniyi addressed the evidentiary threshold that would need to be met for any prosecution to proceed. No charges have been filed, and the investigations are at their earliest stages.
“It is going to be very difficult to prosecute Simi without a survivor being present,” she said, urging anyone who believed they had been subjected to abuse to come forward and give a formal statement. She specified that the nature of any potential offence, whether it constituted sexual abuse, defilement, or sexual assault by penetration, remained undetermined in the absence of a complainant. She did not name any individual as a suspect in a criminal matter.
No formal charges have been filed against Simi. She has not been arrested, detained, or summoned for questioning by any law enforcement body as of Thursday. The Lagos Police Command did not issue a public statement confirming receipt of the DSVA referral, and the timeframe for the preliminary investigation was not disclosed. The Ogun State Government had not publicly confirmed whether it would act on the DSVA’s call by the time of publication.
