Anambra Catholic priest remanded for impregnating teenager

A Catholic priest, Rev. Fr. Nwaigwe Stephen, in Anambra State has been detained in a correctional centre by an Awka magistrates’ court, known as the Children, Sexual, and Gender-Based Violence Court, for allegedly raping and impregnating a teenager.

The magistrate ordered the prosecutor to send the original case file to the office of the Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice of Anambra State.

The priest was also alleged to have forcibly taken the pregnant minor to Benin City, Edo State, where she gave birth to her baby, but police investigation revealed that the location of the baby was still unknown.

Deciding on a bail application by the defence counsel, the Magistrate, Genevieve Osakwe, stated that the case was an offence punishable with life imprisonment, lamenting that the offence of rape against a minor was becoming widespread.

But the police prosecutor prayed the court to deny bail to the clergyman, stating that the case was an offence against a minor who was supposed to be under the spiritual guardianship of the defendant.

The magistrate, therefore, ordered the detention of the priest and adjourned the case to December 6, 2023.