The Police Command in Abia State has confirmed the arrest of a pastor of the Assemblies of God Church, Chukwuemeka Orji, for allegedly defiling a 13-year-old female domestic worker in the Aba area of the state.

The state Police Public Relations Officer, ASP Chinaka Maureen, who confirmed Orji’s arrest, said an investigation into the case was ongoing.

According to reports, the 60-year-old pastor, while perpetrating the crime, reportedly left bruises on the victim and subjected her to psychological trauma.

It was learnt that Orji, who took the victim from her family members with a promise to sponsor her education, had reportedly been having carnal knowledge of the minor since she was 12 years old.

In a bid to silence the victim, the cleric allegedly threatened to stop sponsoring her education and send her back to her family members if she informed anyone about the illicit acts.

Narrating her ordeal in the hands of the pastor, the 13-year-old girl said when she started leaving with Orji, he regularly made sexual advances to her which she refused.

She, however, noted that things took another turn when the pastor allegedly forcefully had carnal knowledge of her sometime in 2022, adding that afterwards, it became a regular act.

According to sources close to the family, Orji ran out of luck on Thursday, June 15, 2023, when he attempted to have his way around the minor but discovered that she was on her period.

He was said to have forced her to perform oral sex on him.

One of the sources said, “Unsatisfied by her performance, he sent her to cut grass at a farm within the church premises as a punishment for being on her period before she was allowed to go to school.

“The victim who could no longer bear the action of the pastor reported him to her class teacher when she got to school. The teacher notified the proprietor of the school and the proprietor alerted the Executive Director of Vivacious Development Initiative, Lady Nwosu, who informed a colleague, Chuka Okoye, after which the police were contacted and the pastor was arrested.”

Orji was arraigned at a Magistrate Court sitting in the Aba South Local Government Area of the state on Tuesday and was remanded with a bail condition to the Abia State Correctional Centre pending the determination of his cases.

Meanwhile, the Aba District Superintendent of Assemblies of God Church, Rev. Dr Don Njoku, in his reaction to the development, said Orji had been sanctioned and expelled from the ministry.

He made the statement to the Protect the Precious Foundation led by Norah Okafor.

Njoku said, “Assemblies of God Church is a holiness organisation; we don’t support promiscuity of any kind. What our pastor did is what we preach against. Consequently, even if the announcement is not made official yet, he knows he has been sanctioned.

“He knows that in our constitution, anybody that does such a thing is expelled from the church and we will be going to his church on Sunday to tell the members to put an official approach to it and to tell them to cheer up and continue in the race because when a soldier is hit by a bullet, it does not make other soldiers to shrink, they continue but all they will need to do is to guard themselves more, knowing that in battle, people fall and people die.

“So, obviously Rev. Chukwuemeka Orji is suspended and disfellowshipped from the ministry. Even if the government doesn’t do anything to him, this is what we do when our member does a thing such as that because what he did is what we prohibit, what the Bible prohibits and what we speak and stand against.”