The Ikeja Sexual Offences and Domestic Violence Court on Tuesday sentenced 51-year-old cleric Nduka Anyanwu to double life imprisonment for defiling and impregnating two biological sisters in a church complex.

Justice Abiola Soladoye convicted the Lagos-based pastor of impregnating a 13-year-old and a 17-year-old, both of whom have been delivered of babies.

Ms Soladoye held that the evidence of prosecution witnesses was believable and consistent.

She described the convict as morally bankrupt.

The judge said that the police should have charged the parents of the victims/survivors alongside the convict.

She described the parents as irresponsible, saying that they encouraged the survivors to get defiled by the defendant.

“On several occasions, one of the survivors went back to the parents to complain about the conduct of the defendant. She was beaten and sent back to the defendant’s home.

“The prosecution has proved the ingredients of the offences against the morally-bankrupt defendant,” she said.

The judge held that the cleric should have his name written in the state’s sexual offenders register.

According to the Lagos State government, Mr Anyanwu committed the offences on August 3, 2020, on Arowojobe Street, Oshodi, Lagos State.

The prosecution team: Olusola Soneye, Olufunke Adegoke and Abimbola Adegoke, called five witnesses.

The witnesses are the survivors, their parents and a social worker.

The convict testified as the sole defence witness.

According to the prosecution, Mr Anyanwu defiled and impregnated the sisters on the pretext of holding prayer sessions with them. 

(NAN)