Pastor arraigned for raping a 14-year-old girl!

A pastor, Basil Princewill, is currently on trial for allegedly raping a 14-year-old minor.

Princewill, a pastor with Mountain Mover Fire Ministry, Nyanya, is standing trial for criminal conspiracy, impersonation, criminal intimidation and assault alongside one of his church members, Pauline Okoh.

On Wednesday, Sgt. Bulus Samuel, prosecutor told an Abuja Chief Magistrates' Court, Karu, that the offences contravene sections 97, 179, 397(B) and 268 of the Penal Code. He said the FCT Police command, sometime in July, received a transferred case file with a covering letter from the National Agency for the Prohibition of Traffick Persons.

In the said file, the police got information that Princewill unlawfully had sexual intercourse in his office with the minor, who is a member of his church.

Samuel said that the accused committed the offence under the pretence of carrying out "deliverance" on the victim and got her pregnant.

"When he discovered that the girl was pregnant, he conspired with one of his church coordinators, Pauline Okoh, and took her to Fantanu Head Medical Centre, Mararaba, Nasarawa State, for an abortion."

The prosecutor said that the accused impersonated the victim’s father and aborted the pregnancy without her consent. "He equally criminally intimidated the victim never to disclose the situation to anybody," he said.

The mother of the girl, Ngozi Iwuoha, said that her daughter refused to tell her anything when she noticed that she was bleeding.

"She insisted that she is in her normal menstrual flow," she siad. "I became worried and took her to our church pastor who is the accused; he asked me to take her home and pray for God’s intervention and divine visitation.

"After enough persuasion, she (my daughter) told me that it was Papa, our church General Overseer that did it to her.

"He asked her to buy a white handkerchief and olive oil and come to his office with them for cleaning up her dirty foundation. She took the oil and handkerchief to his office and he forcibly had sex with her and threatened her with a knife" the woman recounted.

"He made her promise never to tell anybody what happened or he would kill her."

Iwuoha said that the accused was an imposter who was impersonating a lawyer with LLB qualification, while he was not.

"I took my daughter to the hospital and she was diagnosed with a post-abortion trauma which led to complications, and when I told the accused of the result of the test, he reported me to the police for deformation of character and I was arrested and detained for a day" she said.

A flyer of the accused dressed as a lawyer wearing a wig was presented to the court as evidence.

Chief Magistrate Ahmed Shaibu adjourned the case to November 13 to enable the prosecutor to present more evidence against the accused to the court.