A 61-year-old pastor told an Ikeja Sexual Offences and Domestic Violence Court on Wednesday that his tenant, Godwin Emmanuel, defiled and impregnated his 16-year-old daughter.
Lagos State government had arraigned Emmanuel before the court on a one-count charge of defilement to which he pleaded not guilty.
The prosecution told the court that Emmanuel allegedly defiled the pastor’s daughter between April and July 2021 in the Ajangbadi area of Badagry.
Prosecution counsel said the offence contravened the Criminal Laws of Lagos State.
Following his not-guilty plea, state counsel, Ms Abimbola Abolade, invited the pastor to testify before the court.
The witness told the court that Emmanuel was his tenant, whom he knew through an estate agent.
He said he had known Emmanuel for three to four years and that his daughter identified the defendant as the person responsible for her pregnancy since he had been sleeping with her.
“Godwin defiled my daughter and impregnated her at the age of 16 years.
“I reported the case at Area K Police Station in Badagry where my daughter confirmed that he had been sleeping with her for a long time.
“My daughter kept the pregnancy and gave birth to a female child,” he said.
Under cross-examination by defence counsel, Mr Victor Edet, the pastor told the court that he could not recollect the precise date that he reported the case to the police.
He said, however, that he later reported the case at the Domestic and Sexual Violence Agency and at a medical centre when the police did nothing about his complaint.
He said he was convinced that it was the defendant who impregnated his daughter after Emmanuel’s wife, a nurse, gave drugs to his daughter to abort the pregnancy.
The pastor also told the court that his daughter told him that during one of the sex romps, the condom in use broke.
Emmanuel, however, told her to shift responsibility to a third person whom he introduced to her, the pastor added.
Presiding Justice Abiola Soladoye adjourned further hearing in the case to Dec.11. (NAN)
