- Girl’s fallopian tube removed during abortion, church member alleges
- I owe no one any explanation – Cleric
For Mrs. Onyinye Obileku, trusting any man of God has now become a Herculean task, especially given her recent experience.
Obileku has yet to come to terms with the reality that the pastor of her church, Tunde Yemi Daniel, could descend to that level of carnality of allegedly impregnating her 16-year-old daughter, Ogechi, and even subjecting the young girl to the harrowing experience of an abortion, afterwards, to cover up his shameful misdeed.
Daniel, it was gathered, is the senior pastor of Royal Heritage Arena located at 8, Owolabi Street, Mafoluku, Oshodi, Lagos, where Obileku and her family had been worshipping.
Findings revealed that Pastor Daniel, who is in his 50s, and a husband to two wives and eight children, had allegedly earlier had some romantic relationship with the girl’s mother, Obileku, who had sought his spiritual help.
Convinced of the pastor’s spiritual prowess, Obileku, who is a resident of 23 Oremeji Street, Mafoluku, Oshodi, had earlier taken her teenage daughter, Ogechi, to him for “spiritual counselling” on her decision to venture into modelling.
Pastor Daniel, however, in the course of his ‘mentoring,’ got sexually attracted to the minor, who he later allegedly impregnated and later took for abortion at a hospital near his church.
After the pains of the abortion subsided, the secret romance between the pastor and the teenager was said to have intensified, resulting in a frosty relationship between the cleric and the young girl’s mother, who was also alleged to be his former secret lover.
The development began to adversely affect Ogechi’s relationship with her mother and her other siblings.
Narrating her experience, Obileku told our correspondents that her teenage daughter suddenly became “rebellious and distant” due to the illicit love affair between her and the pastor.
She alleged that sometimes in July, her daughter eloped with the pastor for four days, after she scolded her over some text messages she found on her phone, which she later confirmed were sent to her by the cleric.
Obileku added that as she left home that day, her teenage daughter took along a few of her things and N265,000 cash belonging to her.
She said, “Tunde (Pastor Daniel) destroyed my daughter and turned her against me. I can’t have my daughter to myself anymore. She no longer obeys my instructions. The day she left home, initially it didn’t occur to me she had eloped until late in the evening that day, when I expected her to have returned, but she never came.
“I started asking about her whereabouts from neighbours and some told me that they saw her in the afternoon leaving the house while her younger ones were with me at the shop. She had lied to her younger ones that I needed their attention at the shop, just to send them away from home because of what she had planned to do.
“When I returned home, I searched everywhere for her, and on getting to my room, I found out that the bag I kept my money had been opened and the money had disappeared. Immediately, it dawned on me that my daughter had absconded from home.
Obileku added, “Instantly I called Tunde (Pastor Daniel) to ask him about her, but his number was not going through. So, I went straight to his house. His wives told me that he was not around and I went back home. For four days, my daughter was not with me; she came back with Tunde in the evening of Monday, the following week.
“When she returned, I ordered her to go inside, but she completely ignored me. I was bitter. I told Tunde that he had badly influenced my daughter and she no longer listened to me anymore. But he shouted at me. He then told Ogechi to go inside and she quietly obeyed his (pastor’s) order. I felt seriously disappointed and I started sobbing.”
The teenager’s mother, however, further alleged, “Earlier, in January, before I got the wind of the illicit relationship between my daughter and Pastor Daniel, Ogechi had had a surgery around her abdominal region for what the doctors called ruptured appendicitis. But we later discovered that the operation performed on her was actually for abortion and she almost died.”
She added that the family had to cough up over N360,000 for another surgery to save her daughter’s life as the abortion she had earlier, went awry.
Obileku’s elder brother, Williams Ochei, also alleged, “Pastor has hypnotised my niece with all he has done to her. As I speak with you, she no longer listens to us at home. She’s now deviant, rebellious in her conduct since she has been having illicit affair with the pastor. We expected him to counsel her to have good conduct, when my sister introduced her daughter to him, but unfortunately, he has destroyed her for us.”
Ochei, also said if not for God, the teenager would have died during the abortion she was subjected to by the pastor. He claimed that the family had to spend a lot of money to treat her after the abortion took a dangerous dimension.
A member of the Royal Heritage Arena Church, who pleaded anonymity, said, “We all heard about the case and it’s a surprise that a pastor could do such a heinous thing. We heard that the man took the little girl for abortion after impregnating her and one of her fallopian tubes was damaged and removed in the process. What is the evidence that the two were not affected? The parents and the authorities need to take the matter up.”
The angry church member also disclosed that she had been having a rethink about worshipping under Pastor Tunde since she heard of the alleged sex scandal.
When our correspondent contacted Pastor Tunde for his response to the allegations leveled against him by Obileku, he grew angry and said he was not ready to discuss the issue.
“If you want this kind of story from me, you will come to my house, and moreover, I cannot disclose my address to you. Go and investigate me. I am not scared of whatever you want to publish. I know how to handle the situation,” he said.
Our correspondent gathered that the case had earlier been reported at the Akinpelu Police division, Mafoluku, Oshodi.
A source said the pastor was earlier arrested by police operatives at the division, but later granted bail after he signed an undertaking forbidding him from going close to the minor any longer. He was also asked to refund the money the family spent on treating the young girl after the problematic abortion she was subjected to.
But Obileku alleged that in spite of the undertaking the pastor signed at the police station, and the payment of half of the money spent to treat her, it was discovered that he was still in touch with the minor, who is now in Owerri, Imo State.
The Coordinator, Child Protection Network, Oshodi-Ejigbo chapter, Ebenezer Omajelile, said, “Efforts will be made to prosecute the suspect, if investigation finds him culpable.”
The Lagos State Police Public Relations Officer, ASP Olarinde Famous-Cole, could not be reached on the matter as at press time as calls made to his mobile phone were not
answered.
