A pastor and director of Light of Hope Orphanage
at Akute, Ogun State, identified simply as Mr. Atunde, was on Wednesday
arrested by policemen from Zone 2 Command, Onikan, Lagos State for
allegedly raping two minors at his orphanage.
PUNCH Metro learnt that Zone 2 began
investigating Atunde after receiving a petition from Project Alert against
him.
Project Alert, a non-governmental organisation,
said the petition was prompted by a teacher of the school which the minors
attended.
One of the minors (name withheld) had allegedly
showed up at school in March with blood dripping down her legs.
When questioned by school officials, the minor
claimed that Atunde had had sex with her.
Project Alert programme officer, Tobi Asekun,
said, “It was the school that brought the case to us. This is not the first
time that we have received complaints against Tunde’s activities.
“Last year, one of his neighbours came to us
making the same complaints but no one could take action because we needed his
victims to confirm the claim.
“So when this case was brought to our attention,
we wrote a petition to Zone 2 command,”
It was learnt that plain-clothes officers from
Zone 2 had visited the school and spoken with the minors who are aged 13 and 14
years before picking up Atunde from the orphanage which also doubles as his
family home.
The orphanage, a large one-storey building
housing about 12 rooms, is said to have been functioning since 1996.
Currently about 22 children live at the
orphanage, most of whom were male and female minors.
Another 11 orphans were said to be running
various programmes in a private University with their expenses being paid by
the orphanage.
A total of 79 children are allegedly being cared
for by the orphanage, which is registered with the Ogun State Ministry of Women
Affairs.
The Zone’s Police Public Relations Officer, Mr.
Femi Balogun, confirmed Atunde’s arrest.
He said, “Atunde has been arrested. We will have
more details by tomorrow.”
Culled from the punch news paper
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