MEN of the Lagos State Police Command have arrested 42-year old evangelical clergyman Pastor Chidiebere Ikpa for allegedly raping his 14-year old stepdaughter in the Surulere area of Lagos metropolis.
Pastor Ikpa, who hails from the Bende Local Government Area of Abia State, was arrested by policemen from the Isokoko division of the Nigeria Police Force after the allegation was made, while the girl was taken to the Mirabel Centre, Ikeja for a medical examination. However, the clergyman denied the accusation, saying that it was a neighbour, whom he identified only as Richard, that defiled the 14-year-old girl.
However, the girl, a Senior Secondary School Two pupil, who eventually reported the incident to the police, insisted that she was raped by the pastor on several occasions. She added that whenever she told her mother about it, she usually shouted her down and refused to take any action on the matter.
Tests reportedly confirmed that the girl’s private parts had been tampered with and a police source said the girl reported that Pastor Ikpa had been sleeping with her since she was 10 years old and was the one who deflowered her. However, Pastor Ikpa denied all this, saying that he flogged the girl last week and she disappeared from the house, not knowing she was going to the police to lie against him.
Pastor Ikpa said: “The girl started living with me when she was 12 or thereabout, around 2012 and it is not true that I raped her. I flogged her on Thursday for being rude and she did not return home after school, so we did not see her until Friday.
“The girl has a boyfriend, his name is Richard and he is the manager of a hotel on Rasak Balogun Street. If the medical results show someone has been sleeping with her, then it is Richard, not me."
He added that it is a mystery to him that the girl is claimed he slept with her as when he caught Richard and confronted him sometime last year, he started begging. According to Pastor Ikpa, the mistake he made was that he did not report the matter to the police then.
A police spokesman said: “The victim’s mother is culpable because she knew about the abuses. The girl said it was when her mother failed to take concrete steps that she came to the police.”
According to pastor Ikpa, his wife got furious when they caught Richard with the girl and said they must report the matter to the police but the man started begging, sending hum text messages and he decided to forgive him as he is a pastor. A spokesman for the Lagos State Police Command confirmed that pastor Ikpa has been arrested and transferred to the Isokoko Division for prosecution.
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