A teenage girl (name withheld) has accused a pastor, Dozie Ezani, in Anambra State of sexually violating her under the guise of carrying out deliverance.
In an interview with the Punch, the girl, 16, said trouble started when her aunt told her that the pastor said she was possessed and needed deliverance.
The victim, who was rescued by operatives of the Anambra State Special Anti-Touting Squad Agency in Onitsha, said her aunt took her to the pastor’s residence.
The teenager said the cleric, Evangelist Ezani of Jesus Is Ontop Ministry, attempted to have intimacy with her on her first night in his house, but she rebuffed him.
“While I was asleep, Dozie Ezani came into the room and started touching me, but I pushed his hands away. After several attempts, he eventually left,” she narrated.
She also added that she later heard the pastor’s wife question him about where he was coming from, and he responded that he had gone to check on the children.
The victim further recounted that the next day, the cleric took her to his church in Amichi for the ‘special deliverance’.
She alleged that while the so-called deliverance was going on, the pastor tried several times to force himself on her, but she resisted.
Probably as a strategy to weaken her, the pastor allegedly did not give her food for days. Okafor said at one point that she was too weak to resist the pastor, and he overpowered her.
She narrated that from that day on, the cleric had made a habit of having forceful sex with her, including while they were on the altar for deliverance.
The teenager said apart from the church, the man also had sex with her on his poultry farm in Igboukwu, a neighbouring town in Aguata LGA.
When confronted with the allegations, the pastor allegedly admitted to committing the offence. He reportedly claimed it was the devil’s handiwork, as he did not know what had come over him.
The cleric disclosed that he was on his farm, adding that he was then taken to the security outfit’s office in Onitsha the same day, before being transferred to the State Criminal Investigation Department in Awka.
He claimed it was not entirely his fault, as the girl was brought to him when he was minding his business.
The suspect asked for leniency, while promising to cover the victim’s medical bills if he is released.
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