The Ogun State Police Command says its operatives have arrested a pastor for allegedly defiling a 14-year-old choir member at Agbado area of the state.

The command’s spokesperson, SP Abimbola Oyeyemi, who made the disclosure on Sunday, said the 38-year-old pastor is the General Overseer of ‘The Beloved Chapel’ in the Agbado area of the state.

Oyeyemi said the pastor allegedly lured the victim into his room and raped her, adding that the arrest of the cleric followed a complaint lodged at the Agbado Divisional Headquarters of the police by the mother of the victim.

He said the pastor would have long been arrested, but the victim’s mother frustrated earlier moves as she said she did not want to offend her pastor.

He added that she changed her mind and invited the police after noticing that her daughter has been bleeding ceaselessly since the rape in October 2021.

The police spokesman noted that the victim, who is currently recuperating in a hospital, told the police that it was the pastor who deflowered her.

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Oyeyemi stated that the mother of the victim reported that she was away from home to seek medical treatment when her daughter went to church, but the pastor lured her into his room and forcefully had carnal knowledge of her.

“Upon the report, the DPO Agbado division detailed his detectives to the scene where the pastor was promptly arrested.

“On interrogation, the pastor who admitted defiling the victim pleaded for forgiveness. According to him, his family and that of the victim are so close, but he didn’t know how and why such thing happened to him.

“Preliminary investigation revealed that the suspect would have been arrested long ago, but the mother of the victim frustrated the move because she doesn’t want to offend her pastor. But when the victim was continuously bleeding from her private part since the incident which happened in October 2021, she was left with no other option than to allow police come into the matter.

“The victim who claimed that the pastor was the first person to sleep with her is currently recuperating in a hospital,” the police spokesperson said.

Oyeyemi added that the Ogun State Commissioner of Police, Lanre Bankole, has warned parents to stop shielding their daughters’ assailants as they could be charged as accessory to the crime.

The Star