An Ado-Ekiti High Court on Thursday sentenced a Winners Chapel Church pastor, Enoch Gbinyiam, to life term.
That was after the court convicted the pastor of sedating a minor before raping her in his church in Omuo Ekiti.
Ekiti state government took up the case and prosecuted Pastor Gbinyiam to conclusion in court.
BAR & BENCH WATCH reports that moments after Gbinyiam was arraigned for the lone count charge of rape, the State Director of Public Prosecutions, Julius Ajiba, told the court that the defendant raped the daughter of a member of the church during her visit to the vicarage.
Ajiba described the victim as a regular visitor to the mission house.
According to him, the victim usually visited the vicarage to assist the pastor’s wife with house chores, teach and help his young children with 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 a drink.
“The minor took the Fanta and slept off only to wake up and find out that she was bleeding profusely from her vagina.”
He said that the defendant was subsequently arrested and charged in court.
He said that the offence contravened Section 2 of the Gender Based Violence (Prohibition) Law, 2019.
The DPP called four witnesses and tendered two exhibits to prove his case.
The defendant, 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.
The presiding judge, Hon. Justice O.I.O. Ogunyemi, ruled that the prosecution proved his case beyond reasonable doubt.
Ogunyemi, therefore, convicted the defendant and sentenced him to life imprisonment in a correctional center.
