Culled from Punch
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.”
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