Ade Adebayo
A pastor, simply identified as James, was apprehended and tied up by residents of Lekki with a rope after he was caught defiling a minor who attends his church.
The pastor, whose church is located at Ologolo, Jakande, Lekki, was said to have requested the 12-year-old girl to assist him with a load before he pounced on her and forcibly had carnal knowledge of her.
A resident of the area, Olawale Titus, told our correspondent that the pastor perpetrated the illicit act inside his friend’s room in an uncompleted building.
According to Titus, “While I was heading out, I heard a noise and shouts from a nearby building. I asked what happened and I was told that a man was caught while raping a small girl. He was caught as he tried to run away.
“The girl had blood gushing out of her private part. There was blood on the floor in the room. This little girl was defiled by her pastor, who lured her from his church with the lie that he needed her to help him carry something.
“She followed him, he took her into the room (a friend’s room), pushed her on the bed, which was on the ground and raped her.
“The girl managed to run out after a while and cried for help, this raised attention and the rapist pastor ran. Luckily, boys in the neighbourhood caught up with him and tied him up.
“The police was called and they took both the rapist and the victim to the station at Jakande Police Station here at Lekki.
I drove behind the police to ensure I followed up the case and lodged a formal complaint. He was held in custody while the guardian of this little victim was called in.”
Meanwhile, the victim’s relations, after appearing at the police division, strangely started pleading for the pastor’s release by police.
Corroborating this strange development, another eye witness, Olusola, who was also at the police division, said the victim’s sister and brother were begging the police on behalf of the pastor and blaming the incident on the devil.
He said, “The issue now is that a relation of the victim, who happens to be her elder sister, refused to take the girl to hospital even with the police report. Instead, she was pleading that the pastor be released, blaming the act on the devil.
“She said that he (pastor) had earlier seen a vision that something bad would happen to him, saying the rape was devil’s work. I also saw the brother of the victim begging for the man’s release. Both of them were calling the pastor “Daddy.”
Our correspondent also gathered that church members of the pastor have been making efforts to prevail on the police to release the pastor while they settle the matter.
Lagos Police Public Relations Officer, Superintendent Muyiwa Adejobi, could not be reached as of press time.
