A witness to the prosecution, Joseph Onoja, told a FCT High Court on Thursday that he had invited Mary Paul, the mother of the two girls who had accused a pastor, Mathew Emmanuel, of violating them after he had reported being charged with the offence.
Police charged Mr Emmauel, 50, who is the pastor and general supervisor of The Choice Bible Church, Mpape, and the owner of the primary school where his victims attended, with six counts bordering on induction and rape in 2012, which were contrary to sections 283 and 285 of the Penal Code.
Mr Onoja, a policeman who testified as the sixth witness to the prosecution, said on March 23, 2012, at about 10 a.m., the defendant reported Mrs Paul at the Mpape Divisional Police Headquarters.
“The defendant reported that Mrs. Mary Paul had gone to his home and charged him with defiling her two daughters.”
“We then invited Mrs Paul and her two daughters to report at the station.”
“In her statement to the police, she told us that her daughters told her that Pastor Emmanuel took them into his room and touched their private parts.”
‘The two girls described what the room looked like. They said the room had a red window blind, wooden bed, among others.”
“When I visited the house with them. I confirmed the existence of everything the girls described in the room,” he said,
He also told the court that after the statements of the girls were taken, they were sent to the hospital for medical examination.
”The original results confirming that the girls were defiled, were sent to the Ministry of Justice.” he told the court.
The witness added that the statement of the defendant, which he signed by himself, was taken by the police.
He said that all efforts made by the police to get two other victims to testify in the case failed.
After listening to Mr Onoja’s testimony, Justice Hussein Baba-Yusuf adjourned the case until September 19, for cross-examination of the witness.
The police accused the defendant of raping two seven-year-olds and a nine-year-old on different occasions in his school.
Mr Mathew pleaded not guilty to the charges.
