Posted by By GEOFFREY ANYANWU, Awka on
The parents of 11-year-old Anurika Ananti of Iruabo Nkwelle Awkuzu, Evangelist and Mrs. Michael Ananti could not control their emotions Friday at the Anambra State police headquarters, Awka, where they stood face to face with two men who allegedly raped their daughter to death.
•As pastor abducts, impregnates three others at a go
The parents of 11-year-old Anurika Ananti of Iruabo Nkwelle Awkuzu, Evangelist and Mrs. Michael Ananti could not control their emotions Friday at the Anambra State police headquarters, Awka, where they stood face to face with two men who allegedly raped their daughter to death.
The incident happened just as the pastor of God's Decisions Bible Church, Ubahuekwem, Ihiala, was alleged to have abducted three girls between the ages of 16 and 20, and impregnated them at the same time. He allegedly committed the act under the guise of administering spiritual healing on them.
Parading the two suspects - Sunday and Dominic Mbam - Anambra State Police Commissioner, Mr. Oliver Osuchukwu, said the deceased and her kid brother, Chiemerie, went to their parent's farm to collect vegetables when the accused persons gang-raped her.
Father of the deceased, Evangelist Ananti who said he is into personal evangelism and farming, revealed that on the faithful Sunday morning, he had sent her daughter, accompanied by her five-year-old brother, to fetch some vegetable leaves from their farm to prepare breakfast. According to the evangelist, he became worried when they failed to return as quickly as he had expected. His instincts were right, as the boy reportedly ran back to alert him that some men had abducted his elder sister.
"On hearing this, I ran to the farm and there I met this man (pointing at Sunday Mbam); the hoes they worked with was there, my daughter's clothes were there, even the nylon and the vegetable were also on the ground.
"I asked him about my daughter, but he said he heard a cry and came there. I then ran out and called on people to come, that something was happening in the bush. Together, we entered the bush to search for my daughter. While combing the bush, we found my daughter's lifeless body. I then went and invited the police."
Also narrating what happened, five-year old Chiemerie, in a few words, identified the two men as those responsible for his sister's death.
Said he: "When we were cutting the vegetables, they were calling us to come but we refused. They asked us to come and take some money, but we refused. They pursued us, caught Anuri; they killed her, these people (pointing at the two suspects)."
Describing the action of the men as callous, Mr Osuchukwu said the matter was still being investigated, assuring that justice must take its cause.
However, the two accused who said they were in Awkuzu for farming (helping people to dig mounts for planting of cassava or yam), said they did not know each other and were working in different farms. They also denied being responsible for the girl's death.
According to Dominic Mbam, "I was working when I heard someone shouting and when I got there, I saw a woman, and the next thing, the villagers seized me, and started beating me that I killed the girl."
For Sunday, he only saw Anurika when they took him to the spot where the body was lying.
Super stud pastor
Speaking on the pastor and the three girls he allegedly impregnated, the Assistant Commissioner of Police, Criminal Investigation Division (CID), Mr. Chris Ezeike, said that the three girls whose ages were put at 16, 19 and 20 have been confirmed pregnant by a doctor.
He, however, said that the pastor in his statement denied one of the pregnancies, naming one of his pastors as the one who did the act.
Ezeike disclosed that the second pastor had been arrested and put in police custody.
The pastor, he further said, deceived the girls with the claim that he is gifted man of God, promising to administer spiritual healings on them.
Ezeike promised that the matter would be taken to court in a week's time.