A Nigerian Pastor with Deeper life Bible Church, Abudu, in Orhiomnwon LocalGovernment Area, Eze Fidels, has been paraded by the Edo State Command of the Nigerian Police for defiling two underaged girls.
Also, three suspected rapists, a robbery gang, including a woman, who specialized in robbing unsuspecting passengers using private cars which they masquerade as taxi cabs, were among the 32 suspected criminals paraded by the police.
Pastor Fidelis was said to have lured the two girls, aged six, into his room after sending them on an errand. The police claimed he had carnal knowledge of them before dismissing them.
Father of one of the girls who noticed the unusual way his daughter was walking when she got home, obtained confession from her, which led to the arrest of the pedophile pastor.
Eze who confessed to the act, said he had actually defiled two other minors, both of them 11 years old sometimes this year, but said he was tempted by evil spirit to commit the act.
“I am really ashamed of myself particularly as a Pastor. I have been a Pastor at Deeper Life for over six years but I was tempted to defile these girls. They are always visiting me, so this particularly day I defiled both of them,” he said.
Edo state police commissioner, Folusho Adebanjo, who paraded the suspects to journalists in Benin, also displayed various arms and ammunition recovered from them.
He disclosed that few weeks after the state government placed ban on the use of motorcycle in the Benin metropolis, criminals have devised ways to rob unsuspecting commuters, using private cars as taxi cabs.
Adebanjo further disclosed that the command had apprehended over 90 suspected armed robbers and kidnappers in the past five weeks but expressed worry in the rising cases of defilement of minors across the state.
“Today we have 32 suspects that we are parading and they are involved different crimes, ranging from armed robbery, kidnapping, cultism and people who are involved in defilement of the girl child. This defilement thing in the state now is very very disturbing, we will not allow them to go scot free. And that is why we continue to appeal to members of the public to always give us useful information because we cannot do it alone.
“But let me also alert members of the public, there is an emerging crime since the ban on Okada was effected, it is called one chance. What they do is that they always have a woman amongst them so that will make you not to suspect them. There is always somebody that claims to be a Pastor with them, they will deceive you to say you have a particular problem and they will rob you of everything.
“One of their victims a lady had to go to bank to withdraw N150,000. We are going to work with Road Safety and the Board of Internal Revenue so that all vehicles on the road must be registered. People should shine their eyes very well, they are using some vehicles pretending to be taxi drivers,” he stated.
To check this, Mr. Adebanjo called on the Edo State Revenue Board and the Federal Roads Safety Commission (FRSC) to ensure registration of vehicles both old and new that have flooded the sate capital since the ban on commercial motor cycling.