Anambra Catholic priest lands in prison for raping, impregnating teenager
The priest was also accused of forcibly transporting the pregnant minor to Benin City, Edo State, where she gave birth. While the investigation showed that the baby's whereabouts are still unknown.
The Anambra State Children, Sexual and Gender-Based Violence Court has remanded Rev. Father Nwaigwe Stephen, a Catholic Priest, for allegedly raping and impregnating a teenager.
The priest was also accused of forcibly transporting the pregnant minor to Benin City, Edo State, where she gave birth. While the investigation showed that the baby’s whereabouts are still unknown.
The magistrate who placed the priest in prison until December 6, 2023, directed the prosecutor to forward the original case file to the office of Anambra State’s Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice.
Sexual intercourse with a juvenile is a punishable offense under Section 34(2) of the Child’s Rights Law of Anambra State, 2004.
According to the Daily Trust, as the victim was answering questions in court during remand hearings on Monday November 20, 2023, she stated that when she was 14 years old, the priest abducted her from her parents and promised to support her education while she also functioned as his cook.
She claimed that he began forcing himself sexually on her not long after she moved into the priest’s residence, and that he continued the behavior until she became pregnant at the age of 17.
The minor went on to say that when she told the priest about her pregnancy, he brought her from Ihiala, Anambra State, to someplace in Benin City, Edo, to the home of a man and woman whom the priest introduced to her as his brother and brother’s wife.
“But when I gave birth to my baby at a native birth attendant’s house in Benin City, I was told that the baby died and when I made efforts for them to show me the dead baby, they said the baby had been buried”.
When court asked if she had been gang-raped before, the minor noted, “While on our way to Benin City, father told me to say that I was gang-raped. But I have never been raped before, except the ones he (father) did to me in his house”.
Also, during remand proceedings, the Police prosecutor informed the court that there was a probable cause to order the remand of the priest; witnesses were bound over to appear before the High Court to give evidence, whenever the case would be mentioned.
However, the defence counsel applied for bail of the defendant, urging the court to exercise his discretion of bail in favour of the defendant, while citing Sections 13(3), 71(3), 72 and 73 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Law (ACJL) of Anambra State, 2022, as well as, Sections 35 and 36 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999, as Amended.
The defence counsel also asked the court to grant bail to the priest in most liberal terms; assuring the court that Nwaigwe would never jump bail, if granted.
While the police prosecutor asked the court to refuse bail to the clergyman, stating that the case before the court was an offence against a minor who was supposedly under the spiritual guardianship of the defendant.
The presiding Chief Magistrate, Genevieve Osakwe, while ruling on the bail application, noted that the case before the court was an offence punishable with life imprisonment, regretting that the offence of rape against minors was becoming rampant in the society. While she warned that the court would not fold its hands to watch the society decay, irrespective of whose ox is gored.
The magistrate gave numerous instances of similar offences which had appeared before it in the past, mentioning specifically, a case involving a-75 year old man who also allegedly raped a minor and was accordingly remanded.
Meanwhile, the case was adjourned to 6th December, 2023.