A dismissed Catholic Priest in Anambra, Rev. Fr. Nwaigwe Stephen has been remanded for allegedly raping and impregnating a teenager.
He is alleged to be among some priests expelled by a Religious Congregation in Orlu, Imo State, known as the Two Hearts of Love Congregation” (Ugwu Nso) in 2018 for alleged misconduct.
Nwaigwe was remanded in prison till December 6, 2023, by an Awka Chief Magistrates’ Court, also known as the Children, Sexual and Gender-Based Violence Court, Anambra.
The magistrate ordered the prosecutor to transmit the original case file to the office of the Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice of Anambra.
According to the report, the priest was also accused of forcefully taking the pregnant minor to Benin City, Edo, where she was delivered of her baby.
However, a police investigation revealed that the whereabouts of the said baby is still unknown.
The offence of having sexual intercourse with a minor is punishable under section 34(2) of the Child’s Rights Law of Anambra State, 2004.
The priest had reportedly met the teenager at the St. Albert, The Great Catholic Church Parish, Obosi, Anambra State, where he was invited for a religious church programme.
While answering questions in court during remand proceedings on Monday, November 20, 2023, the victim claimed the priest took her from her parents to live with him when she was 14 years old, promising to sponsor her education while she equally served as his cook.
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She stated that not long after she moved into the priest’s house, he started forcing himself sexually on her, saying he continued the act until she became pregnant at the age of 17.
The minor further stated that when she informed the priest about her pregnancy, the priest took her from Ihiala Anambra State, where they lived, to somewhere in Benin City, Edo, to the house of a man and woman whom the priest introduced to her as his brother and brother’s wife.
“But when I gave birth to my baby at a native birth attendant’s house in Benin City, I was told that the baby died and when I made efforts for them to show me the dead baby, they said the baby had been buried”.
When the court asked if she had been gang-raped before, the minor noted, “While on our way to Benin City, father told me to say that I was gang-raped. But I have never been raped before, except the ones he (father) did to me in his house”.
Also, during remand proceedings, the Police prosecutor informed the court that there was probable cause to order the remand of the priest; witnesses were bound over to appear before the High Court to give evidence, whenever the case would be mentioned.
The defence counsel applied for bail of the defendant and also prayed the court to grant bail to the priest in the most liberal terms; assuring the court that Nwaigwe would never jump bail, if granted.
But the police prosecutor prayed the court to refuse bail to the clergyman, stating that the case before the court was an offence against a minor who was supposedly under the spiritual guardianship of the defendant.
The presiding Chief Magistrate, Genevieve Osakwe, while ruling on the bail application, stated that the case before the court was an offence punishable with life imprisonment, regretting that the offence of rape against minors was becoming rampant in society.
Osakwe cautioned that the court would not passively observe societal decay.