In 2021, Dotun’s now-estranged wife, Taiwo Omotayo Oyebanjo,
who is sister to a famed record producer in Nigeria, filed for divorce.

She had alleged domestic violence, emotional abuse, and a
forced abortion, which Dotun had consistently denied.

Dotun, in his counterclaims, had stated that his wife and
her family started hindering his access to their daughters.

Taiwo had maintained that Dotun knew the children’s location
and that her actions were to protect her daughters from abuse.

The ensuing custody battle, which ended their nearly
decade-long marriage, resulted in both parties trading accusations on social
media.

Dotun continued to raise the alarm that his right to see his
children was being denied, even after a court had granted divided custody.

The OAP, in multiple social media posts, later disclosed
that his estranged wife took their children out of the country without his
knowledge, significantly complicating his efforts to see them and making the
custody struggle an international matter.

On November 29, Dotun presented fresh allegations, calling
attention to the US embassy’s role in the dramatic turn of his custody dispute.

In a barrage of posts, he accused the embassy of flouting a
court order and aiding what he has described as international child abduction.

Dotun said his estranged wife unlawfully removed their two
children from Nigeria and took them to the US three years ago without his
consent, despite an active divorce and custody case at a federal high court.

He claimed to have had the children’s original passports and
that a court order prevented the children from being taken out of the
jurisdiction.

He said the US embassy issued new passports to his
American-citizen children without his consent, his presence, or a fair hearing,
thereby enabling what he terms the “kidnapping” of his daughters.

Dotun demanded accountability from the embassy, specifically
calling out the former consular-general, Mary Beth Leonard, for what he
believes was a compromised and biased process that facilitated his ex-wife’s
actions.

He argued that even though the children are US citizens, the
mother is not, and the issuance of new passports without his required consent
and in contravention of a local court order signalled the embassy’s failure to
protect the rights of a non-American father.

Dotun said the US embassy issued new passports, a process
that typically requires the consent of both parents or documentation of sole
custody (Form DS-3053 or DS-5525).

“Be assured, papers were most likely forged, or games
played,” he claimed in part.

“The American embassy in Nigeria is an enabler of child
abduction. Very biased. No proper investigation.

“They destroy families and do not protect kids. I have
written for years and kept quiet for 3 years. It’s time. I have realised you
all think you uphold a fair system, but you are very unfair.”

The OAP asked the embassy to either provide his children or
offer him a fair explanation for how their strict two-parent consent policy was
circumvented, thus enabling what he terms international parental child
abduction.

As of this reporting, the US embassy in Nigeria has yet to
publicly address these allegations.

Nigeria has been battling a surge in mass abductions of
school children across its north-west and north-central regions.

On November 17, some gunmen struck a girls’ secondary school
in Kebbi, abducting 25 girls and killing the school’s vice-principal.

On November 21, armed men again attacked a Catholic school
in the Papiri community of Niger, abducting 315 students and teachers.

More localised attacks have been recorded since then, with
the federal government forced to shut down schools at scale.

These have generated a heated national debate, political
tension, and a diplomatic firestorm, with numerous public figures weighing in.