Winners Chapel pastor bags life sentence for raping minor in Ekiti

Mr Enoch Gbinyiam,  a Winners Chapel Church pastor in Omuo, Ekiti, has been sentenced on Thursday by an Ado-Ekiti High Court for raping a minor in his church.

Gbinyiam faced a one-count charge.

Mr Julius Ajiba, the State Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), informed the court that the defendant raped a church member’s daughter while she was visiting the vicarage.

Ajiba described the victim as a regular visitor to the mission house.

According to him, the victim usually visited the vicarage to assist the pastor’s wife with house chores, and teach and help his young children with their school assignments.

“It was during one of her visits to the mission house that the defendant sedated a bottle of fanta and offered her to drink.

“The minor took the fanta and slept off only to wake up and found out that she was bleeding profusely from her vagina.

He said that the defendant was subsequently arrested and charged to Court.

He said that the offence contravened Section 2 of the Gender Based Violence (Prohibition) Law, 2019.

The DPP called four witnesses and tendered two Exhibits to prove his case.

The defendant, who spoke through his counsel, Mr Adeyinka Opaleke, pleaded not guilty to the charge against him.

He called one witness and tendered an evidence in defence of himself.

The Presiding Judge, Hon. Justice O.I.O Ogunyemi, ruled that the prosecution proved his case beyond reasonable doubt.

Ogunyemi, therefore, convicted the defendant and sentenced him to life imprisonment in a Correctional Centre.