BREAKING: Cleric detained, faces prosecution over allegation of rape, impregnating minor, ‘It’s a set up’ – family
Yinka ADETUNJI
BREAKING: Cleric Detained, Faces Prosecution Over Allegation Of Rape, Impregnating Minor, ‘It’s A Set Up’ – Family
The world is never normal; life never swings in the direction that conforms to sensibleness. Or how does one explain the occasional news of clerics, assumed men of God, being enmeshed in cases of sexual offences or why some people will sinisterly seek to smear a supposedly saintly man? Either way it is a proof of the putrid abnormality that the world is redolent with.
A cleric (name withheld) of a popular church (name shielded) in Ogbomoso, Oyo state, is currently fighting the battle of his life to save face and ministry, as he is facing prosecution over allegation of raping a minor, a seventeen year-old JSS 3 pupil (name withheld), who is now about six months old pregnant.
The matter became an open secret some four months ago after the girl was discovered to be pregnant. The girl initially shielded the “man of God” fearing the backlash and so named a shoemaker in her neighbourhood but upon prodding she eventually named the embattled cleric as being responsible.
It was a frantic moment. The cleric denied, leading to a legal practitioner being contacted by the family of the “abused” child.
It has continued to degenerate, and yesterday, Wednesday, the pastor was summoned to the office of the Oyo state ministry of women affairs, community development, social welfare and poverty alleviation at Oja’gbo, Ogbomoso North local government, where a mild drama ensued.
According to sources at the welfare office, the man claimed he never knew the girl but that he later owned up to sending her on errand one time to buy him sachet water.
But from the account later obtained by ogbomosoinsightonlune.com the girl claimed the cleric used to send her on errand and that one day she went to buy sachet water for him “and after I returned to his office in a section of the church auditorium he started fondling me and then forced himself on me.”
She claimed he had carnal knowledge of her one more time. The girl reportedly said that because she was threatened she couldn’t disclose to anyone but that her aunt whom she lived with got wind of it the second time “because she came to look for me in the church when she came home and did not find me but when she came around she stood by the door while the show of shame was unfurling.”
The two – aunt and niece – thought the best was to cover up the matter.
The resultant pregnancy however blew open the lid. It has now put colleagues, family members and others close to him into an uptight situation.
Meanwhile a source close to the pastor affirmed it was a set up to tarnish the image of the man of God, to possibly bring him down, adding, “They will fail. They just want to destroy him, we don’t know who we offended and are after us. It is a wicked concocted story.”
Unable to resolve the matter the social welfare office has transferred the case to the police for further investigations enroute adjudication by a court of competent jurisdiction.
The pastor was detained Wednesday and as at the time of filing this report he’s still being held even as “his people” are trying to secure his release on bail.
Obviously, the matter is frighteningly descending into and teetering towards an unpredictable phase “for the reason that if the man of God is charged with rape and he is found guilty, he will spend years in jail, pay a fine or suffer both penalties,” a lawyer who spoke with ogbomosoinsightonline.com submitted.
