Pastor Enoch Gbinyiam, a cleric with Winners Chapel Church in Omuo-Ekiti, has been sentenced to life imprisonment by the Ekiti State High Court sitting in Ado-Ekiti.
He was on Thursday found guilty of raping the daughter of a church member when she visited his home.
Ekiti News reports that the cleric was arraigned on a one-count charge of rape by the state government.
Mr. Julius Ajiba, the Ekiti State Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), informed the court that the defendant raped the daughter of a church member during her visit to the vicarage. He described the victim as a regular visitor to the mission house.
Ajiba said: “It was during one of her visits to the mission house that the defendant sedated a bottle of fanta and offered her to drink.
“The minor took the Fanta and slept off only to wake up and found out that she was bleeding profusely from her vagina.
“The defendant was subsequently arrested and charged to court.
The Prosecutor stated that the offence contravened Section 2 of the Gender Based Violence (Prohibition) Law, 2019.
The DPP called four witnesses and presented two exhibits to support his case.
Speaking through his counsel, Mr. Adeyinka Opaleke, the defendant pleaded not guilty to the charge. He called one witness and presented one piece of evidence in his defense.
Hon. Justice O.I.O. Ogunyemi, the Presiding Judge ruled that the prosecution had proven its case beyond a reasonable doubt.
The Judge, therefore, convicted the defendant and sentenced him to life imprisonment in a correctional center.