An Ikeja Sexual Offences and Domestic Violence court has sentenced Pastor Feyi Daniels, founder of iReign Christian Ministry, to life imprisonment for “raping a church member”.
The trial judge, Rahman Oshodi, found the Lagos-based Pastor guilty of rape and sexual assault of a female worshipper and held that Daniels should spend the rest of his life at the Kirikiri custodial facility.
Oshodi held that the ingredients of the two offences against him by a 19-year-old church member and a 23-year-old pastor assistant were established by the prosecution..
According to the judge, Daniels is a liar and does not have any regard for truth.
It was earlier reported that the Bishop, who entered the witness box in his own defence, testified that he believed three out of the four women that accused him of sexually assaulting them conspired against him.
While cross-examining the defendant, the prosecution’s lead counsel, Babajide Boye, sought to establish if he had a ‘personal relationship’ with the four women.
Boye alleged that Daniels had counseled one of the women and gave N100,000 to another for hospital treatment, paid school fees for the third, and related with the fourth woman as a leader in the campus fellowship affiliated with his ministry at Akungba-Akobo in Ondo State.
The Bishop however denied giving money to one of the women for treatment. He said: “I believe all three ladies turned against me, but not (name withheld) because she later apologized to me.”
When asked why the accusations from the ladies were all sexual in nature, he said he didn’t know.
Also, Boye accused Daniels of using his position as a Pastor to manipulate persons who approach him for counseling.
He said: “You are a man of God. Are you not? A powerful man of God. You get trained to counsel, and you use wisdom and the leading of the spirit to manipulate.”
The defendant denied this allegation, saying, “I am not a powerful man; I am a pastor. I do not use power to counsel people; I am not a manipulator.”
The Prosecutor grilled the defendant further and said: “You visited your Akungba fellowship centre, and when she (one of the alleged victims) saw you, she hissed. Were you not surprised as a pastor?
“No. She was disgruntled because I couldn’t help her financially.”
The defendant also denied tampering with the WhatsApp messages between him and one of his alleged victims.
During the cross-examination, Boye also sought to tender four statements purportedly written by the defendant whilst in police custody at various intervals last year.
Boye said: “There are contradictions between the defendant’s testimony and the contents of the documents. We seek to use them to impeach his testimony. We rely on section 232 of the Evidence Act, that evidence even though obtained improperly is still admissible and we urge the court to admit same.”
Adebayo Adegbite, the defense counsel, objected to the admissibility of the statements and argued that the statements were not made by the defendant and that they were signed by the Bishop under duress.
Adegbite said: “The statements are a mixture of confession and denial. We leave it to the court to determine whether they amount to a confession. Right from the start of this trial, the defendant has denied the charges, that’s his plea. The documents weren’t made voluntarily. Even if there were contradictions, he wasn’t the maker of the documents, they were written by the police.”
In his ruling, Justice Rahman Oshodi admitted the documents. He saidThe judge said, “By section 9(3) and (4) of the Administration of Criminal Justice Law of Lagos State (2021), the presence of a video testimony of the suspect is desirable but not compulsory. I will admit the documents and later consider the evidential value to place on them. The objection of the defence is hereby overruled.”
