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Homicide detectives, at the State Criminal Investigations Department (SCID), Panti, Lagos, have launched a manhunt for a pastor suspected to have raped an 11-year-old girl to death.
Homicide detectives, at the State Criminal Investigations Department (SCID), Panti, Lagos, have launched a manhunt for a pastor suspected to have raped an 11-year-old girl to death.
The suspect, identified as pastor Henry O. Evbotokhai, of The Miracle Deliverance Church International, Era-Abule, Off Iyana Era, Lagos-Badagry expressway, was alleged to have forcefully slept with the girl brought to him for deliverance, and after discovering that the girl was dead, he fled.
Investigation revealed that the deceased, identified as Covenant, was taken to the pastor by her mother, Mrs. Udoh, for deliverance, on Sunday, 24 August, and left to sleep in the church.
Mrs. Udoh, it was gathered, accused her daughter of being possessed with strange spirit, and asked pastor Evbotokhai to exorcise the demons from her.
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Three days into the one-week deliverance service, P.M.News gathered, the pastor took the girl to his one-room apartment where he allegedly raped the girl until she fainted.
A detective at Panti, disclosed that when the pastor discovered that she was dead, he packed his belongings and fled.
Since then, he has not been seen. The mother of the victim reported the disappearance of her daughter to the police at Ijanikin. The landlord of the property the pastor was occupying, Mr. Chika Samuel, and two others were arrested.
Investigations revealed that detectives followed Samuel to church where the door was forced open and the bloated naked body of Covenant was found on the floor in the one-room apartment used by the pastor as his residence. Blood was reportedly coming out of her private part.
This, it was learnt, made detectives to conclude that the deceased was raped to death by the fleeing pastor.
Samuel and the two others arrested were later transferred to the SCID, Panti, for interrogation.
Speaking with P.M.News after his release from SCID, Samuel said he gave the land on which the makeshift church was built to pastor Evbotokhai free of charge.
'I gave him the land on which he built his church free of charge. I didn't collect a dime from him. See the trouble he has put me now,' he stated. Detectives at SCID said investigation into the matter continues.