Pastor Francis Ogwu
By Our Reporter
The general overseer of Jesus House of Joy Church, Awka, Pastor Francis Ogwu, has been arrested for allegedly raping his seven-year-old househelp in Anambra State.
The 65-year-old suspect who hails from Imo State but resides in Awka, Anambra State, said in a video clip, which showed the suspect and the survivor being interrogated and uploaded on Facebook on Thursday, that he only inserted his finger in her Househelp’s vigina because his wife denied him of sex on the grounds that she’s fasting.
In the clip, the pastor denied raping the survivor.
“I only fingered her once,” he claimed.
Asked why he did not go to his wife instead, he replied, “The problem with my wife is that each time I wanted her, she would tell me that she was fasting or doing night vigil.”
Pastor Ogwu also claimed that the devil must have pushed him into the act, given that the survivor had yet to develop breasts that could possibly attract him to her.
“Since 1991 till now, I have been preaching the gospel,” he claimed and pleaded for forgiveness.
The suspect’s wife was asked to respond to her husband’s claim that she frequently denied him sex, but she said she would not be able to answer the question.
She said she was not aware that her husband was raping the survivor.
A statement issued by Chidinma Ikeanyionwu, a media aide to the State Commissioner for Women and Social Welfare, Ify Obinabo, on Thursday said the pastor and general overseer of Jesus House of Joy Church, Awka, has been arrested over the alleged crime.
The media aide said the suspect was arrested in response to an alarm raised by some residents in the neighbourhood that he had been raping the girl child.
She said the suspect lives with his wife and children alongside the house help in Awka.
The statement did not indicate when the suspect allegedly raped the survivor.
Ms Ikeanyionwu said the survivor narrated to the commissioner how the suspect allegedly raped her.
The survivor, according to the statement, said the suspect had allegedly raped her three times, after which he gifted her between N500 and N1000.
She said the suspect’s wife later accused her of attempting to snatch her husband from her.
She added that she was forced to leave the house following frequent beatings by one of the suspect’s daughters.
The survivor’s mother, Destiny Nwabueze, said she allowed her daughter to live with Pastor Ogwu’s family due to the friendship existing between the two families.
Mrs Nwabueze, however, said she was shocked when she learnt from the daughter that the suspect had been raping her.
She said the suspect denied the allegations when confronted, which prompted her to involve people in the neighbourhood in raising the alarm.
Meanwhile, the suspect’s family later arrived at the commissioner’s office and pleaded that the suspect be forgiven.
But the commissioner told them the matter had been handed over to the police.
“The case will be charged to court,” she said.
While reacting to the development, the State Commissioner for Women and Social Welfare, Mrs Obinabo, vowed to ensure the survivor gets justice. She advised married women to avoid starving their husbands of sex, stressing that such could “push the husband to misbehave”.
She also urged women always to protect their girl child at all costs, noting that rape was no longer excusable in Anambra State.
