Popular Lagos cleric and founder of iReign Christian Ministry, Bishop Feyi Daniels, has been sentenced to life imprisonment over alleged rape.
Bishop Daniels was handed the sentence on Friday by an Ikeja Sexual Offences and Domestic Violence court for the crime of “raping a church member”.
In May 2023, Bishop Daniels was remanded for allegedly r*ping a 25-year-old woman at his Lekki residence.
The reported victim was said to have told the court that the cleric had s*x with her during a prayer session while speaking in tongues.
At the resumption of the case on Friday, the judge, Rahman Oshodi, after careful consideration, found the Lagos-based cleric guilty of both rape and s*xual assault against a female worshipper.
In his defence, the Bishop testified that he believed 3 out of the four women who accused him of s*xual assault conspired against him.
However, during cross-examination, the prosecution’s lead counsel, Babajide Boye, aimed to establish that Bishop Daniels had a personal relationship with these women.
Boye alleged that the defendant had provided counselling to one of the women, given N100,000 for hospital treatment to another, paid school fees for a third, and had a connection with the fourth woman as a leader in the campus fellowship associated with his ministry in Akungba-Akobo, Ondo State.
The self-proclaimed Bishop refuted the claim of providing financial assistance to one of the women for medical treatment.
He asserted, “I am of the belief that all 3 women have turned against me, except for (name withheld), as she later apologized to me.”
When questioned about the nature of the accusations being solely s*xual, the accused expressed ignorance.
Furthermore, Boye accused the defendant of exploiting his role as a Bishop to manipulate individuals seeking counselling from him.
“You are a man of God. Are you not? A powerful man of God. You get trained to counsel, and you use wisdom and the leading of the spirit to manipulate,” Boye asked the cleric.
Feyi Daniels denied the allegation, saying, “I am not a powerful man; I am a pastor. I do not use power to counsel people; I am not a manipulator.”
The prosecutor further grilled the defendant, “You visited your Akungba fellowship centre, and when she (one of the alleged victims) saw you, she hissed. Were you not surprised as a pastor?
“No. She was disgruntled because I couldn’t help her financially.”
In the course of the cross-examination, the prosecutor additionally aimed to submit 4 statements allegedly authored by the defendant during his time in police custody at different points throughout the previous year.
“There are contradictions between the defendant’s testimony and the contents of the documents. We seek to use them to impeach his testimony. We rely on section 232 of the Evidence Act, that evidence even though obtained improperly is still admissible, and we urge the court to admit same,” Boye said.
The defence counsel, Adebayo Adegbite, raised objections to the admissibility of the statements. He argued that the defendant did not make the statements and that the Bishop signed them under duress.
“The statements are a mixture of confession and denial. We leave it to the court to determine whether they amount to a confession. Right from the start of this trial, the defendant has denied the charges, that’s his plea. The documents weren’t made voluntarily. Even if there were contradictions, he wasn’t the maker of the documents, they were written by the police,” Adegbite stated.
In his ruling, however, Justice Oshodi admitted the documents.
The judge said, “By section 9(3) and (4) of the Administration of Criminal Justice Law of Lagos State (2021), the presence of a video testimony of the suspect is desirable but not compulsory. I will admit the documents and later consider the evidential value to place on them. The objection of the defence is hereby overruled.”