The church premises
“Two of them acknowledged he had canal knowledge of them. However, investigation is ongoing.”
They whisked away the pastor and the girls. When a correspondent visited the church yesterday, some members of the church looked dejected. They, however, denied that the pastor was sleeping with the girls.
The GO’s younger brother, Mr. Ikechukwu Nkwocha, said he was surprised when someone from the church called him on the phone that the pastor had been arrested for rape.
He said: “We don’t live in the same house; I cannot speak on what I don’t know. It is only God Almighty that knows everything that transpired between my brother and the girls.
“He is such a nice person. When some of the girls come to the church and complain of accommodation, he always comes to their aid by providing them an apartment in his house.
“The pastor is my blood brother. It was God who called him. Even as part of his efforts to alleviate the suffering of some of his church members, he is paying their school fees.
“He also registered some of them for the General Certificate Examination (GCE) and the West Africa Examination Council (WAEC)-conducted Senior School Certificate Examination (SSCE).
“He is only assisting them; why should they pay him back in this form?” Ikechukwu alleged that one of the girls, who the GO chased out, wrote a petition to the police.
“The girl was brought to the church by a member after complaining of accommodation problem to that person. After a while, she started misbehaving in the church; that was why my brother sent her away.”
Ikechukwu also said that the policemen had searched Nkwocha’s house and no incriminating thing was found in his apartment. He said: “I believe it was because she was sent away from the house that made her to write the petition against the man of God.”
A resident, who did not want her name in print, alleged that the pastor used the opportunity of providing the girls accommodation to rape them.
She said: “Bubble burst when one of the girls, Evelyn, who was chased away by the pastor for resisting his advances, reported the matter to the police.
“What we normally observe in the community is that, whenever there is a programme in the church, even on Sundays, girls are usually brought to the church in different commercial buses.”
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