A 60-year-old pastor of the Assemblies of God Church, Chukwuemeka Orji, has been arrested by the Abia State Police Command for allegedly defiling a 13-year-old female domestic worker in the Aba area of the state.
The state Police Public Relations Officer, Chinaka Maureen, who confirmed Orji’s arrest, said an investigation into the case was ongoing.
Orji, who had taken the victim from her family members with a promise to sponsor her education, started having carnal knowledge of the minor when she was 12 years old.
The pastor reportedly left bruises on the victim while perpetrating the crime and subjected her to psychological trauma.
In a bid to silence the victim, the cleric allegedly threatened to stop sponsoring her education and send her back to her family members if she informed anyone about the illicit acts.
Narrating her ordeal at the hands of the pastor, the 13-year-old girl said that when she started leaving with Orji, he regularly made sexual advances to her, which she refused.
She, however, noted that things took another turn when the pastor allegedly forcefully had carnal knowledge of her sometime in 2022, and afterward, it became a regular act.
A family source who spoke to PUNCH said Orji ran out of luck on Thursday, June 15, 2023, when he attempted to have his way around the minor but discovered that she was on her period.
He was said to have forced the victim to perform oral sex on him, and unsatisfied with her performance, he punished the little girl.
The victim later opened up to her school teacher, and Orji was arrested and arraigned at a Magistrate Court sitting in the Aba South Local Government Area of the state on Tuesday.
The pastor was remanded with a bail condition to the Abia State Correctional Center pending the determination of his cases.
The sources said, “Unsatisfied by her performance, he sent her to cut grass at a farm within the church premises as a punishment for being on her period before she was allowed to go to school.
“The victim, who could no longer bear the action of the pastor, reported him to her class teacher when she got to school. The teacher notified the proprietor of the school, and the proprietor alerted the Executive Director of Vivacious Development Initiative, Lady Nwosu, who informed a colleague, Chuka Okoye, after which the police were contacted and the pastor was arrested.
Meanwhile, the Aba District Superintendent of Assemblies of God Church, Revered Don Njoku, in his reaction to the development, said Orji had been sanctioned and expelled from the ministry.
According to Njoku, Assemblies of God church is a holy organization and does not support promiscuity.
