Nigerian media personality Dotun Kayode has reignited a long-running family dispute, accusing the United States embassy in Nigeria of helping his estranged wife leave the country with their two daughters in defiance of a court directive.
The conflict dates back to 2021 when his wife, Taiwo Omotayo Oyebanjo — sister to a prominent Nigerian music figure — sought a divorce.
In her filings, she alleged domestic violence, emotional manipulation, and a coerced abortion. Dotun denied every claim, arguing instead that Taiwo and her relatives deliberately cut him off from his daughters. Taiwo, however, maintained that her actions were meant to protect the children and that their whereabouts were never concealed from him.
As the marriage collapsed publicly, both sides took their grievances to social media, each accusing the other of misconduct. Although a court eventually ordered shared custody, Dotun repeatedly insisted that he was still being shut out of his daughters’ lives.
Tensions intensified when he revealed that Taiwo had travelled out of Nigeria with the children without notifying him — a development he says pushed their custody dispute into an international arena.
On November 29, Dotun escalated his accusations, this time targeting the US embassy directly. In multiple online posts, he alleged that the embassy ignored a Nigerian court’s order and played an active role in what he described as the international abduction of his children. He claimed the girls were taken to the United States three years ago while the divorce case was still before the Federal High Court.
Dotun said he held the children’s original passports at the time and that the court had explicitly restricted them from leaving Nigeria. Yet, according to him, the embassy issued new US passports to the minors without his knowledge or authorization, despite rules requiring both parents’ consent — unless one parent has proven sole custody — using forms such as DS-3053 or DS-5525.
He alleged that “documents were likely forged or manipulated” and labelled the embassy “an enabler of child abduction with no proper investigations.” Dotun also took aim at former US consular-general Mary Beth Leonard, accusing her of overseeing a flawed process that failed to safeguard his parental rights.
“They break families apart and do not protect children,” he wrote, demanding either the return of his daughters or a clear explanation of how the two-parent consent requirement was bypassed. He described the issue as a classic example of cross-border parental child abduction.
The US embassy has not issued a public response to the accusations.
In a separate development, Nigeria continues to grapple with escalating cases of mass kidnappings in its northern states. On November 17, armed attackers invaded a girls’ secondary school in Kebbi, kidnapping 25 students and killing a vice-principal. Just days later, on November 21, another large-scale abduction occurred at a Catholic school in Niger State, where 315 people were taken. These incidents have triggered widespread school closures and renewed national concern over security.
