A Pastor of the Assemblies of God Church in Aba, Abia State, has been remanded in prison over the alleged rape of a minor.
Pastor Chukwuemeka Orji was remanded at the Correctional Centre by a Senior Magistrate’s Court sitting in Aba on Tuesday, June 21, 2023.
60-year-old Orji, a Pastor of the Assemblies of God, is facing a one-count charge of serially raping a 13-year-old girl who lived with him and his wife.
The victim (name withheld) told the court that the accused had carnal knowledge of her on many occasions.
She stated that after he raped her for the third time, she told his wife, Mercy, who reportedly confronted him over the allegation.
The victim claimed that the pastor refuted the allegation in front of his wife.
According to her, Orji continued to rape her and threatened to send her to her parents in the village in Ugwunagbo if she exposed him.
She said that as a result of the threat, she could not tell her parents, who worship in another branch of the church, about her ordeal.
She further stated that on Thursday, June 15, after Orji’s wife had gone to market, he asked her for sex but she turned his sexual advances down on the ground that she was menstruating.
However, according to her, the pastor forced her to suck his manhood, an act she described as repulsive to her.
She stated that because she could not satisfy him, he punished her by ordering her to cut the overgrown grass in their compound. This made her go to school crying.
“It was while I was crying that my school proprietor inquired to know why I was crying, and I told him the truth,” she said.
She said that after recounting her ordeal to her proprietor, the police were informed about the matter.
However, Pastor Orji pleaded not guilty after the charge was read to him.
After narrating his version of the story, the presiding Magistrate, Mrs. Jane Young-Daniel, put a call to Mercy, Orji’s wife, via cellphone, asking if she was aware of the allegation against her husband.
Mercy, who initially denied being aware of the allegation, admitted that she heard it and confronted her husband, who, she said, refuted the allegation.
The Police Prosecutor, Mrs. Mary Udoji, prayed to the court not to grant the defendant bail in order to prevent him from further molesting the girl.
After she was told that the accused had since been in the custody of the police, Young-Daniel ordered that the girl be returned to her parents immediately.
Also, she ordered that Orji be remanded at the Aba Correctional Center.
She then adjourned the matter to the 6th and 18th of July for hearing.
