Cleric Bags Life Imprisonment For Defiling 2 Underaged Church Members

Justice Abiola Soladoye of the Lagos State Sexual Offences and Domestic Violence Court on Tuesday convicted and sentenced a 51-year-old cleric, Nduka Anyanwu, to two terms of life imprisonment for defiling and impregnating two biological sisters in a church complex.

Justice Abiola Soladoye convicted the Lagos-based pastor of impregnating a 13-year-old and a 17-year-old, both of whom have been delivered of babies.

The state government had arraigned Anyanwu before the court on a two-count charge of blasphemy, an offence he committed on June 3, 2020, on Arowojobe Street in the Oshodi area of the state.

The prosecution team led by Olusola Soneye had told the court that the offence contravened Section 137 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2015.

The prosecution had called five witnesses during the trial; they were the survivors, their parents and a social worker.

The convict testified as the sole defence witness.

In her judgment yesterday, Justice Soladoye held that the evidence of the prosecution witnesses was believable and consistent while she described the convict as morally bankrupt.

The judge also held that the police should have charged the parents of the victims/survivors alongside the convict because they were irresponsible in encouraging the survivors to get defiled by the defendant.

She stated, “on several occasions, one of the survivors returned to the parents to complain about the defendant’s conduct. She was beaten and sent back to the defendant’s home.

“The prosecution has proved the ingredients of the offences against the morally-bankrupt defendant,” the judge held.

The court, therefore, sentenced the convict to life imprisonment on the two-count charge.

Justice Soladoye further directed that the convict’s name should be included in the state’s Sexual Offenders Register.