A Pastor of the Chosen One To Rule Ministry, Asaba, Delta State, Chinonso Udemezue, accused of raping a young boy,Gabriel, (not real name) claims he was being set up by Yahoo Boys in the area.
Punch gathered that sometime in January 2018, a member of Udemezue’s church had visited with her grandson, a 10-year old boy for spiritual counseling because he was a pastor they trusted.
According to the boy’s aunt, the reason the child was taken for counseling was due to the family losing a son and they feared for the life of the boy as well.
“I lost my brother sometime ago and we did not want to lose my nephew too, that is why my mother went to the pastor for counseling and prayers,” she said.
Gabriel’s aunt added that the pastor told her mother that he saw a vision that the boy would be kidnapped.
“He said that we might lose him to kidnappers if my mother did not bring him to live with him for some time,” she said.
The boy stayed with the pastor for more than a month and even attended school from his home.
“When we decided to put the boy in our pastor’s custody, my mother asked how much would be needed to enroll him in a school and pastor said N45,000 which my mother gave to him,” she said.
Few weeks after Gabriel started living with the pstor, he was brought home to his mother, according to him, he could no longer sit properly, they claimed.
Gabriel’s aunt said,
“We asked him what was wrong and he told us how our pastor showed him a sex video on his phone one night. After that, he said pastor removed his clothes and brought out something like oil which he (pastor) robbed on himself and inserted his penis into his anus. He said it was the only time pastor did it.
“We screamed and raised the alarm. We then decided to go and report the matter to the police.”
After he was arrested, we went to the school where my nephew was enrolled and found out that the school was actually N25,000 not N45,000 the pastor told us. The school also said he had only paid N9,000 out of the money.”
The family reported the case at the ‘B’ Police Division, Asaba, and the pastor was eventually arrested and brought before the Okwe Magistrate’s Court, Asaba, on charges of child defilement and rape.
He pleaded not guilty to the charges.
Udemezue was released on a N100,000 bail with one surety in like sum by Magistrate Alero Ezewani, after the suspect’s lawyer, Mr. Inyang, told the court that the family of the victim had decided to settle the case out of court.
The case was adjourned till March 13, 2018.
A human rights activist, Mr. Gwamnishu Harrison, however, took interest in the case as he was in court during hearing.
“After the sitting, I picked an interest in the case and went to meet the family of the boy outside. I was shocked that the lawyer was telling the woman (Gabriel’s aunty) to give him her phone number so they could contact her later in order to give her the money for ‘damages’.
“I could not believe what I was hearing. I told the man right there that I would not allow her to collect the money and that I was taking over the case. He challenged me that I should not intervene since I was not the complainant.
“I told the woman not to release her phone number or collect any money. The woman later told me that when she wanted to take the boy to the pastor for protection, she even gave him (Udemezue) some money.
“I told the boy’s aunty that we needed to take him to the hospital for tests and treatment and that I would take care of the expenses.
“But the policeman in charge of the case said there was no need and that they had already taken the boy to the hospital. But the boy said he had not got any treatment.”
Udemezue denied all the allegations of rape against him when contacted on the phone.
“It is fake news. ‘Yahoo-boys’ in the neighbourhood are the ones trying to set me up,” he said.
On if it means he was arraigned for raping the boy, he confirmed that he was.
On why the boy would make such an allegation and he answered, “I don’t know what they could have said to the boy to make him say such a thing.”
