18th July, 2013
A pastor with Deeper Christian Life Bible Church, Abudu, in Orhiomnwon Local Government Area of Edo State, southsouth Nigeria, Eze Fidelis, 47, has been arrested by the Edo State Command of the Nigeria Police for allegedly raping two girls aged 9 and 11.
Also, three suspected rapists, a four-member armed robbery gang, including a woman, who rob unsuspecting passengers using private cars which they drive as taxi cabs, were among the 32 suspected criminals paraded by the police Thursday.
Edo State Police Commissioner, Folusho Adebanjo, who paraded the suspects before journalists in Benin, also displayed various arms and amunition recovered from them.
He said: “A 47-year old pastor of a Pentecostal church in the state, Eze Fidelis, recently had unlawful carnal knowledge of two minors aged 11 and 9 years.
“This pastor was alleged to have been in this unwholesome practise with the two young girls for about a year.
“You can imagine a 46-year old man, Eugene Odozor, who took a 13-year old girl to his room and forced her to lie on the bed.
“The little girl was unfortunately defiled, but was wise enough to report the matter to her mother.
“There was another case of Segun Oteru, 42, who was caught having unlawful carnal knowledge inside a hall with a 12-year girl.
“The girl was sent on an errand by her mother to bring a rechargeable lantern from the hall within the compound, but stayed too long.
“When the mother did not see her daughter 30 minutes after, she decided to look for her, only to discover Oteru raping her.”
The police commissioner further alleged that Saturday Cole, 35, lured an 11-year old girl into his room and had unlawful carnal knowledge of her.
After Fidelis allegedly raped one of the girls, her father, who noticed the awkward way his daughter was walking when she got home, obtained confession from her, which led to the arrest of the pastor.
Fidelis, who confessed to the act, said he had actually defiled two girls, both of them aged 11, sometime this year but said he was tempted by evil an spirit to commit the act.
“I am really ashamed of myself particularly as a pastor. I have been a pastor at Deeper Life for over six years but I was tempted to defile these girls. They are always visiting me, so this particularly day I defiled both of them,” he said.
The Edo Police boss disclosed that a few weeks after the state government banned the use of motorcycle in the Benin metropolis, criminals have devised a new trick to rob unsuspecting commuters, using private cars as taxi cabs.
Adebanjo further disclosed that the command has arrested at least 92 suspected armed robbers and kidnappers in the past five weeks but expressed worry over the rising cases of defilement of minors across the state.
“Today we have 32 suspects that we are parading and they are involved in different crimes, ranging from armed robbery, kidnapping, cultism and people who are involved in defilement of the girl child.
“This defilement thing in the state now is very disturbing, we will not allow them to go scot free. And that is why we continue to appeal to members of the public to always give us useful information because we cannot do it alone.
“But let me also alert members of the public that there is an emerging crime since the ban on Okada (commercial motorcycles) was effected, it is called One Chance. What they do is that they always have a woman amongst them so that will make the victim not to suspect them. There is always somebody that claims to be a pastor with them, they will deceive you to say you have a particular problem and they will rob you of everything.
“One of their victims, a lady, had to go to the bank to withdraw N150,000. We are going to work with Road Safety and the Board of Internal Revenue so that all vehicles on the road must be registered. People should shine their eyes very well, they are using some vehicles pretending to be taxi drivers,” he stated.
Adebanjo called on the Edo State Revenue Board and the Federal Roads Safety Commission (FRSC) to ensure registration of vehicles both old and new that have flooded the sate capital since the ban on commercial motorcycles took effect.
—Jethro Ibileke/Benin