Otep have dropped of their planned co-headlining run with Ill Niño, due to frontwoman Shamaya's claims the singer for metal outfit Terror Universal "grabbed her crotch" during a meet and greet. Terror Universal share members with Ill Niño and have disputed these claims via the vocalist's wife. Moreover, the Civil Unrest Tour organizers have also released a statement accusing Otep of slander and putting up this stunt. There are always two sides to every story but these are serious accusations flying around from both sides.

Otep had also dropped off a European tour with The Agonist recently.

Otep Shamaya released this statement on the matter: "Before the rumor mill begins: we dropped off the Civil Unrest tour because Terror Universal's molester singer violently grabbed my crotch on our last tour. He's a drunken joke and a fucking scumbag. He's lucky security handled it before I or my band could. We gave them a shot to play in front of our fans and we were repaid by this drunken jackass violating me during the meet and greet in front of our fans. We made it very clear that we will never play any show that has Terror Universal on it. We don't tolerate any kind of passive sexual violence. We owe that to our fans and I never want to experience anything like that again especially from an opening act we were trying to help by giving them exposure to our tribe. We will be headlining in May-June and give the tribe a proper RIOT without any pants rapists on the bill. Onwards & upwards."

A statement from the Civil Unrest Tour: "Addressing Otep's recent slander: Otep is not telling the truth. The Civil Unrest Tour and its affiliates do not support the violation of another individuals personal space, rape, violence against women or any person for that matter. Many of us have families and children. We would never stand for or beside the kind of behavior that Otep is falsely accusing others of perpetrating. What we do support is the TRUTH. The truth is that Otep's business team confirmed Otep for this tour for certain financial terms and Otep's team breached their own agreement after announcement and attempted to blackmail and extort the agency responsible for the tour with slanderous defamation threats against the agency, the bands and all parties involved, in an attempt to secure more money... It truly is a sad state of affairs in the music industry and the world where blatant slander about a very serious accusation becomes business practice for an artist now known as notorious for canceling tours in the 11th hour. Stay tuned for more updates as Civil Unrest moves forward beyond this disgusting abuse of social media and public trust."

Kittie will now co-headline this Civil Unrest Tour with Ill Niño with the tour dates still to be revealed.

Source:	facebook.com
Band profile:	Otep