A Catholic priest, Rev. Fr. Stephen Nwaigwe, has been remanded in a correctional centre for allegedly raping and impregnating a teenager in Anambra State.
The Children, Sexual and Gender-Based Violence Court ordered the defendant’s remand till December 6, 2023.
The magistrate also ordered the prosecutor to transmit the original case file to the office of the Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice of Anambra State for legal advice.
Besides rape, the priest was also accused of forcefully taking the pregnant minor to Benin City, Edo State, where she was delivered of her baby, whose whereabouts remain unkown.
The prosecution said the offence of having sexual intercourse with a minor is punishable under section 34(2) of the Child’s Rights Law of Anambra State, 2004.
When the victim was answering questions in court during remand proceedings on Monday, November 20, 2023, she said the priest took her from her parents to live with him when she was 14 years old, promising to sponsor her education, while she equally served as his cook.
She stated that not long after she moved into the priest’s house, he started forcing himself sexually on her, saying he continued the act until she became pregnant at the age of 17.
The minor further stated that when she informed the priest about her pregnancy, the priest took her from Ihiala Anambra State, where they lived, to somewhere in Benin City, Edo, to the house of a man and woman who 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,” she said.
Asked by the court if she had been gang-raped before, the minor said, “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.”