Pastor impregnates 15-year-old girl, bags 7 years imprisonment in Rivers

The Chief Magistrate of Rivers State Family Court, Ogeh Elkanah, who presided over the case on Wednesday, July 20, 2023, ruled that Erekwa would pay the sum of ₦500,000 to the family of the abused teenage girl for the medical bills accrued during pregnancy.

Elkanah maintained that the cleric would pay the bills upon completion of his jail term. Recall that Erekwa, who is the presiding Pastor of the Glorious Covenant Church in Ndele had pleaded guilty to one count charge of sexual abuse when the charge was read.

The charge was preferred against him by the State Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department (SCID) of the Police Command. The cleric had also allegedly proposed termination of the pregnancy, but the girl’s family who had confronted him with the issue objected to it.

In a related development, three men were some days ago arrested for gang-raping a 15-year-old girl in Abagana, a community in Njikoka Local Government Area of Anambra State, Nigeria’s South-east.

The suspects, who were identified as Chimezie Odugwu, 21, Nnamdi Anodebe, 19, and Jude Onua, 48, were nabbed during a routine patrol with some vigilante operatives in the community.

Following their arrests, the suspects confessed that two of them, Messrs Odugwu and Anodebe —collaborated to lure the victim to their house when they found her wandering at a junction in the community and subsequently raped her.