A pastor of the Mountain of Fire and Miracles Ministries, Gwarinpa branch, David Onyekachuku has been arrested by operatives of the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons, for allegedly raping and impregnating a 16-year-old girl.
Onyekachuku, 48, who hails from Nsukka in Enugu State, had met the victim, a Junior Secondary School 2 pupil in the Karmo area sometime in 2018 and started making love advances to her.
According to NAPTIP in a statement on Sunday, the pastor, after his arrest and during interrogation, confessed to have sexually abused the girl two times and blamed the act on the “work of the devil.”
It was gathered that when Onyekachuku met the victim for the first time, he volunteered to provide shelter and also to deliver her from witchcraft.
The victim had lost her parents in 2018 and was said to be in dire need of accommodation.
The anti-trafficking agency said investigation revealed that the pastor lost his wife at an undisclosed period and later brought the victim to stay with him and his daughter in Karmo.
He allegedly volunteered to assist the victim with her education. The victim noted that it was in her first year with the pastor that he started making love advances to her, an action she resisted.
NAPTIP said the pastor first raped the victim in March 2019 during her birthday and allegedly continued to rape her thereafter, resulting in the pregnancy.
The anti-trafficking agency said in the statement by the Head of Press and Public Relations, Mrs Stella Nezan, that the case would be “diligently prosecuted to secure justice for the victim.”
Nezan said, “During interrogation, the pastor with the Mountain of Fire and Miracles Ministries, confessed to have sexually abused the girl twice and attributed the evil act to the work of the devil.
“He stated that he took the girl in to conduct deliverance on her and also enrolled her in school, having dropped out for about two years. After the deliverance, he took her to live with him and his daughter.”
The NAPTIP Director General, Julie Okah-Donli, said, “Rather than doing what is biblically expected of him in line with his calling, he abused his position and preyed on the very victim he was supposed to protect.
“Arising from the increased cases of rape and sexual abuse of female children and even males across the country, I have directed massive sensitisation across the country in order to arrest the situation.”
