A pastor with Winners Chapel Church in Omuo-Ekiti, Enoch Gbinyiam, has been sentenced to one-year imprisonment on Thursday, June 13, 2024 by an Ado-Ekiti High Court for defiling a minor in his church.
Mr Gbinyiam was dragged before the court on a one-count charge levelled against him.
The State Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), Julius Ajiba, told the court that the pastor raped the daughter of a member of the church during her visit to the vicarage.
According to Ajiba, the victim usually visits the vicarage to assist the pastor’s wife with house chores, teach and help his young children in their school assignments.
He said the pastor 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 private part.
Aliba also told the court that the police was alerted and the pastor has been arrested as well as charged to court.
Meanwhile the offence contravened section 2 of the Gender Based Violence (Prohibition) Law, 2019.
The pastor, who spoke through his counsel, Adeyinka Opaleke, pleaded not guilty to the charge against him. He called one witness and tendered an 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.