Speaking on Friday as he was being paraded before correspondents at the Lagos State Police Command Headquarters in Ikeja, 36-year-old Chukwuemeka Nwocha, the General Overseer of Tongue of Fire Restoration Ministry, Lagos, who was caught enslaving 13 teenage girls in his 3-bedroom s*x harem, has narrated how the devil used the girls against him.
According to a report by Punch Newspapers, when the man of God a.k.a 'Spiritual Daddy' started to talk about what he did before journalists, he started by saying 'By His Grace,' a statement that elicited a laugh of derision from all present.
The air complexioned and soft-spoken Nwocha disclosed that it all started when the children in his church, who called him, “Daddy” told him they would like to visit him.
“I only tried to help the girls.When the first girl came, she said she did not have anywhere to go. I did not know her parents. I am a pastor and I felt pity for her. After spending three days, I told her she needed to go out and bring some of her relations so that they would know where she was. But she did not.
“Later, some parents in my church also said they would like to send their chidlren to live with me. Some of them came to spend holidays after their exam,” he said.
The suspect insisted the parents knew they were in his house. But after telling stories that diverted attention from allegations that he r*ped the girls and had also forced some of them to do abortions, he paused and shook his head.
“I am a pastor, the devil only used the children against me. I did not r*pe them. I only slept with Sola (real name withheld). She is my girlfriend and we actually planned to marry," he said.
When asked how old the girl he mentioned was, he said she was about to clock 17, when asked again if the parents of the girls he claimed knew their whereabouts also knew he was s*xually abusing them, he said yes.
A 13-year-old girl, who is one of the abused girls, explained that her parents indeed gave her permission to spend the holiday in the pastor’s house, adding that all the 13 of them in the pastor’s house lived in one room in his three-bedroomed flat.
“There is only one bed in the room. We all sleep anyhow we could. One of us, who is older is the one who cooked in the house. I got there two weeks ago. My parents are his church members. I just felt it will be good if I spent part of the holiday in pastor’s house. My parents gave their permission before I went there.
“It was when I got to the house that I saw other girls. Few days after I got there, he called me and took me to his room and slept with me. He told me not to speak to anybody about what he did and that he would buy me clothes. I knew that he was sleeping with the other girls. I don’t know whether anyone of the other girls have had abortion.”
Meanwhile, the Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Fatai Owoseni, had said that the pastor haboured the girls with the promise of paying their school fees, feeding them and buying gifts for them.
“While they were in his house, three of them became pregnant and he took them for abortions. He first denied all the allegations but like all criminals, he later confessed to raping them without using protection,” the CP said.
