Popular Nigerian Pastor, Favour Okoise Bags Life Imprisonment For Raping 16-Year-old Girl

A Customary Court of Appeal sitting in Calabar, Cross River State, has sentenced Pastor Favour Okoise, General Overseer of Refiners Fire Global Assembly, to life imprisonment for raping a 16-years-old girl.

Okoise committed the act on the minor whom he calls his ‘spiritual daughter’ between November and December 2016, in Calabar South Local Government Area.

The Pastor was convicted and sentenced on Tuesday at the Family Court of the Customary Court of Appeal, presided by His Lordship, Hon. Justice Blessing Egwu Obin.

According to CrossRiverWatch, the minor came to Calabar in August 2016 for her post-UTME examination and lived with her elder sister at Goldie Street, where the convict visited frequently to share spiritual knowledge.

The survivor narrated that Pastor Okoise harassed her sexually and touched her sensitive parts on several occasions. She said that after numerous attempts to have intercourse with her proved abortive, the convict indoctrinated her that “God needed her body as much as her spirit and soul.”

The Overseer told her that he could transfer spiritual virtues to her through intercourse. She was coerced against her will to have intercourse with him, brainwashing her to be her “spiritual father,” helping to render service to God.

Delivering her verdict, Justice Obin stated that after cross-examination, exhibits and facts presented before her declared that “the defendant had unlawful carnal knowledge of O.P.I (victim) as a minor.”

Citing the Cross River State Child Protection Law 2003, she said, “Accordingly, Favour Maxy Okoise has been sentenced to life Imprisonment and a compensation of N1 million to the survivor, this is the judgement of this court.”