A MAGISTRATE’s Court in Aba, Abia State, on Tuesday remanded 60-year-old Chukwuemeka Orji at the Correctional Centre over an alleged rape of a minor.
Orji, a pastor with the Assemblies of God Church, Ukonu Street, off Ngwa Road, Aba is facing a one-count charge of serially raping a 13-year-old girl that lived with him.
The rape survivor (name withheld) told the court that the defendant had carnal knowledge of her several times.
She said that after Orji raped her the third time, she told his wife, Mercy, who reportedly confronted him over the allegation.
The survivor claimed that the pastor denied the allegation before his wife.
She said that Orji, however, continued to rape her and threatened to send her back to her parents in the village in Ugwunagbo, should she expose him.
The threat, she said, deterred her from reporting to her parents, who worship in another branch of the church.
She further said that on Thursday, June 15, 2023, after Orji’s wife had gone to market, the pastor asked her for sex but she refused because she was menstruating.
Orji, however, forced her to suck his private part, an act she described as nauseating to her. She said that because she could not satisfy him, he ordered her to cut the overgrown grass in their compound “as a punishment”.
The girl said that after the June 15 incident, she went to school crying. “It was while I was crying that my school proprietor inquired as to know why I was crying and I told him the truth,” she said.
From there, the school proprietor invited the police into the matter.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Orji pleaded not guilty to the charge.
After presenting his own version of the story, the Magistrate, Jane Young-Daniel, called Orji’s wife on the phone, and asked her if she was aware of the allegation against her husband.
It was learnt that Orji’s wife initially denied being aware of the allegation, but later admitted that she heard it and confronted her husband who, she said, denied the allegation.
The police prosecutor, Mary Udoji, urged the court not to admit the defendant to bail in order to prevent him from further molesting the girl.
Mrs Young-Daniel ordered that the girl be returned to her parents immediately, after she was told that she had since been in the custody of the police.
She also ordered that Orji be remanded at the Aba Correctional Centre.
The matter was adjourned to July 6 and 18 for hearing. (NAN)
