A 40-year-old Pastor, Abraham Akpan, was arraigned in an Ikeja Magistrates’ Court on Friday over the defilement of a teenager.
Akpan of No. 39, Hassan Ogunmola Street, Ijaiye, a suburb of Lagos, is facing three charges bordering on rape.
The prosecutor, Sgt. Jimah Iseghede, told the court that Akpan committed the offence between August 27 and 29 at his residence.
He told the court that the parents of the 16-year-old girl took her to the church for deliverance where Akpan allegedly defiled her.
“At the deliverance session, when nobody was there, the pastor raped the girl severally,” he said.
The prosecutor said the offence contravened Sections 135, 137 and 141 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2011.
Akpan, however, pleaded not guilty to the offence.
The Chief Magistrate, Mr Tajudeen Elias, adjourned the case to September 21 for ruling on the bail application for Akpan.
Also on Friday, a 25-year-old unemployed man, Ogboru Godspower, was sentenced to 14 years imprisonment for defiling the 13-year-old daughter of his neighbour.
Elias sentenced Godspower after he pleaded guilty to the offence.
“The accused is hereby sentenced to 14 years imprisonment to serve as deterrent to others and to reform him to be a law abiding citizen,” the Magistrate said.
The convict was arraigned on August 14 on one count of defilement.
Iseghede had told the court that the offence was committed on August 8 at Godspower’s residence.
The prosecutor said the victim was going to take her bath when the accused waylaid her, removed her towel and defiled her.
“It was a neighbour who saw the accused in the act that alerted the whole house,” he said.
The prosecutor said the offence contravened Section 137 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2011.
