A High Court sitting in Ado-Ekiti, Ekiti State, yesterday, sentenced Pastor Enoch Ebinyiam of the Winners Chapel Church in Omuo-Ekiti to life imprisonment for sexually assaulting a minor.
The victim was said to be the daughter of one of the convict’s church members. She was said to have been raped by the pastor during one of her visits to the vicarage.
The girl reportedly came to the mission house often to help the wife of the pastor with chores, and his young children with their school assignments.
During one of her visits, the convict sedated her with a drugged bottle of Fanta. Upon waking up, she found she was bleeding profusely in her private part.
The convict was arrested and charged to court for rape, contrary to Section 2 of the Gender-Based Violence (Prohibition) Law, 2019.
The Director of Public Prosecutions, Julius Ajibade, who prosecuted the case for Ekiti State, called four witnesses and tendered two exhibits to prove his case.
The convict spoke through his counsel, Adeyinka Opaleke, who gave evidence in his defence, and called only one other witness.
Justice Olusegun Ogunyemi held that the prosecution proved the offence of rape against the defendant beyond reasonable doubt.
The judge consequently convicted the defendant and sentenced him to life imprisonment.
