Police in Ogun state have arrested a 54-year-old cleric, Niyi Omowodun for allegedly defiling a 12-year-old girl (name withheld).
Omowodun, Pastor of a pentecostal church, Helmet of Life International church and a resident of Ejigun Agbede Itele Ota in Ado-odo local government area of the state was arrested on Monday, June 29.
The command’s spokesman, Abimbola Oyeyemi, in a statement in Abeokuta, the state capital, disclosed that the cleric was arrested following a complaint by the father of the victim who reported at Itele divisional headquarters that while he was at his working place, he received a call from one of his neighbors that his daughter had been sexually abused by the suspect and that the said neighbor caught the man in the act.
Oyeyemi said, “Upon the report, the DPO of Itele division, Monday Unuigbe, detailed his detectives to go after the man and he was subsequently arrested.”
The suspect when interrogated by the police confessed that he had unlawful carnal knowledge of the girl.
The suspect said, he lured the small girl into an uncompleted building in the area when the girl was going on an errand and defiled her.
He further told the police that he had separated with his wife since 2016.
Meanwhile, the Commissioner of Police, Kenneth Ebrimson, has ordered the transfer of the suspect to anti-human trafficking and child labor unit of the state criminal investigation and intelligence department for further investigation and diligent prosecution.
