Pastor bags life imprisonment for raping minor in church

A pastor with Winners Chapel Church, Omuo- Ekiti, Enoch Gbinyiam, was on Thursday, June 13, sentenced to life imprisonment by an Ado- Ekiti High Court for raping a minor in his church.

Gbinyiam was dragged before the court on a one-count charge levelled against him. The State Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), Julius Ajiba, had told the court that the pastor raped the daughter of a member of the church during her visit to the vicarage.

According to Aliba, the victim usually visited the vicarage to assist the pastor’s wife with house chores, and teach and help his young children in their school assignments.

“It was during one of her visits to the mission house that the defendant sedated a bottle of Fanta and offered her to drink. The minor took the Fanta and slept off only to wake up and found out that she was bleeding profusely from her vagina.”

Aliba told the court that the police were alerted and the pastor was arrested and then charged to court. He said that the offence contravened section 2 of the Gender Based Violence (Prohibition) Law, 2019. Four witnesses and two exhibits were put out to prove his case.

The pastor, who spoke through his counsel, Adeyinka Opaleke, pleaded not guilty to the charge against him. He called one witness and tendered evidence in defence of himself.

Justice O.I.O Ogunyemi ruled that the prosecution proved its case beyond reasonable doubt and then convicted the defendant and sentenced him to life imprisonment in a Correctional Centre.