By OPEYEMI GBEMIRO

An Ado-Ekiti High Court on Thursday sentenced a pastor with Winners Chapel Church, Omuo-Ekiti, Mr Enoch Gbinyiam, to life in prison for raping a minor in his church.

Gbinyiam had a one-count charge levelled against him.

The State Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), Mr Julius Ajiba, told the court that the defendant raped the daughter of a member of the church during her visit to the vicarage.

Ajiba described the victim as a regular visitor to the mission house.

According to him, the victim usually visited the vicarage to assist the pastors wife with house chores, teach and help his young children in their school assignments.

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 find out that she was bleeding profusely from her vagina.

He said that the defendant was subsequently arrested and charged to Court.

He said that the offence contravened Section 2 of the Gender Based Violence (Prohibition) Law, 2019.

The DPP called four witnesses and tendered two Exhibits to prove his case.

The defendant, who spoke through his counsel, Mr Adeyinka Opaleke, pleaded not guilty to the charge against him.

He called one witness and tendered an evidence in defence of himself.

The Presiding Judge, Hon. Justice O.I.O Ogunyemi, ruled that the prosecution proved his case beyond reasonable doubt.

Ogunyemi, therefore, convicted the defendant and sentenced him to life imprisonment in a Correctional Centre. (NAN)