He was speaking in tongues’ – Woman tells court how she was r*ped by Bishop while praying

A 25-year-old woman (name withheld) on Wednesday told an Ikeja Sexual Offences and Domestic Violence Court how a bishop, Oluwafeyiro Daniel, allegedly raped her while praying.

The alleged rape occurred at the cleric’s residence at Lekki, Lagos State.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the bishop is standing trial on an amended three-count charge bordering on rape and sexual assault, to which he pleaded not guilty

The alleged victim/survivor testified at the resumed trial of the defendant.

The witness, who was a member of a church founded by the defendant, was led in evidence by state lead counsel, Mr Babajide Boye.

According to the alleged survivor, she was in her sister’s shop in Osogbo on Jan. 2, 2019, when her cousin was listening to the bishop’s sermon on phone.

I told my cousin the sermon was nice and he told me the name of the church which I searched for and followed its page on Facebook.

“After that, I was able to chat with Feyi on Facebook and he added me to a WhatsApp group called Spiritual Sonship Group,” she testified.

The alleged victim told the court that she met the defendant for the first time at a camp in 2019 when the church had a three-day retreat.

“He later had a programme at OAU which I attended and met Brother Isaac, one of his spiritual sons, and we exchanged numbers

From the sonship group, I took an assistant pastor / first prosecution witness (PW1) (name withheld) to be my prayer partner because, irrespective of our gender, we call ourselves sons.

“On the WhatsApp group, Feyi dropped a message that all sons should pick a convenient time to fast for 70 days, pray for two hours and break at 6.00 p.m. daily and come to Lagos for laying of hands after the fasting,” she testified.

The witness told the court that the defendant told her personally to come to Lagos for laying of hands after the fasting.

“On Sept. 8 2019, I told her (PW1) that I was going to Lagos for the laying of hands but the programme started late and there was no where to sleep because I had no one I could stay with in Lagos.