The police in Ogun State have arrested a clergyman, Prophet Ebenezer Ajigbotoluwa, for allegedly raping and impregnating two under-aged sisters.
Ajigbotoluwa, who is the founder and General Overseer of the Church of the Lord, Oloomore, in Abeokuta, the state capital, was arrested following a report by the girls’ mother at the Lafenwa police station.
A statement yesterday by the Ogun State Police Command’s spokesman, Abimbola Oyeyemi, said the mother told the police that she had fallen ill in 2018 and was taken to the church for spiritual healing.
The mother reportedly said the clergyman then directed that all her family members should relocate to the church to avoid affliction of the illness.
According to Oyeyemi, the suspect, however, took advantage of the situation and started having sex with the woman’s 16-year-old and 13-year-old daughters.
He added that the girls’ mother alleged that the cleric also swindled her family of the sum of N2 million meant for “spiritual cleansing.”
The police spokesman further said, “The pastor impregnated the two under-aged girls and went on to procure an abortion for them in a private clinic.”
Oyeyemi said following receipt of the report, the Divisional Police Officer of the Lafenwa division, Chief Superintendent Muraina Ayilara, led his men to the church, which he said they found deserted.
Police detectives, he said, however, arrested Ajigbotoluwa “after an intelligence and technical-based investigation,” last Thursday.
“On interrogation, the suspect confessed to the commission of most of the allegations levelled against him and that it was the reason he ran away when he heard that police were looking for him,” Oyeyemi said.
He disclosed that the police recovered “dangerous” charms from the suspect’s home.
The Commissioner of Police, Edward A. Ajogun, has ordered that the suspect be transferred to the State Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department for further investigation.
Oyeyemi stated that Ajogun had warned people hiding under the umbrella of religion to perpetrate evil to desist or meet their waterloo.
