BY AGNES NWORIE, ABAKALIKI
A pastor-in-charge of Holy Deliverance Ministry in Ndiogodoaba Ishieke community in Ebonyi Local Government Area of Ebonyi State, Sylvester Nwaor, has been arrested by the police for allegedly having carnal knowledge of thirteen male teenagers in his church.
The 32-year-old cleric was accused of being in the habit of sodomising his teenage male members during their bi-weekly vigils in the name of deliverance.
Nwaor was said to have met his waterloo on October 9, 2021 during a deliverance session as one of his victims suddenly regained consciousness while he (Nwaor) was having sexual intercourse with him through his anus.
The young victim was said to have raised the alarm before other members of the church rushed into the deliverance room and allegedly discovered the pastor in the act.
One of the victims (names withheld) who allegedly exposed the ungodly deeds of the cleric told The Point how Nwaor abused them after sedating them.
He said the victims would become unconscious while Nwaor touches their foreheads in the course of prayers with his white handkerchief.
“After touching us (teenage boys) with his (Nwaor) handkerchief, he will take us to an inner room. Before this, the pastor would have announced to other church members that he wants to deliver us of the evil spirit allegedly tormenting us. In the deliverance room, the pastor will insert his private organ inside our anus,” one of the boys recounted.
According to the victim, he only knew when he was touched with the pastor’s handkerchief but regained consciousness later when Nwaor undressed him in the deliverance room and was taking advantage of him sexually before he raised the alarm.
He said he saw other victims also naked but still unconscious at that moment.
Also speaking in an interview, the village head of the community who simply identified himself as Nwuna, disclosed that Nwaor was paraded at the village square and that he confessed to the crime and pleaded for mercy. He said he was handed over to the police afterwards.
The village head said the victims for the October 9 incident were 13 in total and added that six of them are natives of a neighbouring village who also attended the vigil.
He said the parents of six boys out of the 13 allegedly defiled were not interested in getting justice through a judicial process.
Nwuna claimed that the pastor’s homosexual act was diabolically motivated to increase the number of his congregation.
The pastor was recently arraigned before a Magistrate’s Court sitting in Abakaliki, for allegedly engaging in homosexual acts with seven male teenagers. The victims are aged between 13 and 18.
The defendant, who was not able to employ the service of a lawyer, pleaded not guilty to all the charges leveled against him.
Police prosecutor, Inspector Edet Effiong, applied for remand of the suspect on the ground that if granted bail, he would continue his homosexual spree on more children in the community.
To this end, the trial Magistrate, Linda Ogodo, ordered the remand of the defendant in Abakaliki Correctional Centre and transferred the matter to Family High Court in the capital city.
