Pastor sentenced to life imprisonment for raping member’s daughter after giving her Fanta

By Izunna Okafor, Awka

A pastor of Winners Chapel Church (popularly known as Winners Church), Pastor Enoch Gbinyiam, has been sentenced to life imprisonment for raping the daughter of one of its church members (name withheld).

The pastor, popularly known as Pastor Enoch, was convicted by an Ado-Ekiti High Court during the week after he was dragged to court by the state Attorney General, Julius Ajiba, who told the court that the pastor raped the daughter of a church member during her visit to the pastor’s house.

Ajiba told the court that the victim frequently visited the rectory to help the pastor’s wife with housework, teach his young children and help them with their schoolwork.

According to him, “during one of her visits to the mission house, the accused laced her with a bottle of Fanta as a sedative and offered her something to drink. The minor took the Fanta and fell asleep, only to wake up and find that she was bleeding heavily from her vagina.”

This, he said, led to the alerting of the police, who arrested and interrogated the pastor, adding that the pastor was subsequently brought to court.

According to Ajiba, who presented four witnesses and two pieces of evidence to support his charge, the offence violated Section 2 of the Gender-Based Violence Prohibition Act, 2019.

However, through his lawyer Adeyinka Opaleke, the pastor declared that he was not guilty of the charges against him. He also called a witness and presented evidence in his defence.

After hearing arguments from both parties, Justice OIO Ogunyemi ruled that the prosecution had proved its evidence beyond reasonable doubt and sentenced the accused to life imprisonment.

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