One Pastor Israel Adebayo, 38, has allegedly defiled a 14-year-old member of his church in Ogun State.
Pastor Adebayo is the General Overseer of The Beloved Chapel situated at Iyaniwura Street in the Agbado area of the state.
The teen’s mother told the police that while she travelled out of town to treat herself for a certain ailment, her daughter who happened to be a choir member in their church, went to church and the pastor lured her into his room and defiled her afterwards.
Police spokesman Abimbola Oyeyemi said yesterday that the pastor had admitted committing the offence during police interrogation.
Oyeyemi said, “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.
“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 is continuously bleeding from her private parts since the incident which happened in October 2021, she was left with no option but to allow police come into the matter.
“The teen who claimed that the pastor was the first person to sleep with her is currently recuperating in hospital.”