A High Court of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) in Maitama has sentenced a pastor and founder of Mountain Movers Ministry International, Nyanya, Abuja, Basil Princewill, to seven years in prison following his conviction for raping a teenager.
The Abuja-based pastor was convicted of two of the four-count charge.
Justice Hussein Baba-Yusuf delivered the judgement on Tuesday. He sentenced the pastor to seven years for the offence of rape and five years for the offence of abetment which would run concurrently.
The judge said it was regrettable that a person who called himself a man of God was involved in such “shameful, disgraceful and satanic act.”
He said: “It is even worrisome when the person involved is a man of God who we should look up to as next to God. Those who serve in the Lord’s vineyard are expected to be an example to society.
“We have a duty to send a signal that this attitude should not be tolerated. It is regrettable that the person who called himself a man of God will be involved in such shameful disgraceful and satanic act.”
Princewil was arraigned in June 2012 by the police on a four-count charge bordering on rape, impersonation and attempt to cause abortion and abetting miscarriage.
He was said to have forcefully had sexual intercourse with a 14-year-old girl, Favour Iwoha, between July 27 and December 31, 2011 at the church and his house at Nyanya, Abuja, without her consent and impregnated her.
He was said to have subsequently given her drugs in an attempt to abort the pregnancy.
