Rape: Pastor Released on Bail

It was celebration galore Thursday night, at the Mountain Movers Fire Ministries, one of the fast rising churches in Abuja, the nation’s capital, as its worshipers converged in their numbers to give thanks to God for a bail granted their General Overseer, Apostle Basil Princewill.

Justice Husseini Baba-Yusuf of the FCT High Court on Thursday, granted bail to the pastor, Basil Princewill, who is being charged with alleged rape of a 14-year-old girl,a worshipper in his church.

Princewill is the General Overseer of Mountain Movers Fire Ministries International, located in Nyanya, Abuja.

He was arrested by the men of the Nigeria Police, in Nyanya following allegation by some members of his church that he raped and molested some young female members of his church.

The judge’s order that the accused be granted bail followed the absence of the prosecutor in court. He said the prosecutor neither filed any counter-affidavit nor was present at the hearing of the application for bail.

Before granting the bail order, the judge fumed,  “the conclusion I am bound to draw from this is that the prosecutor does not have objection to bail being granted to the accused.

“The attitude of the prosecutor in this case, therefore, is blameworthy and must be condemned in strong term. As ministers in the temple of justice, we are accountable to the public in all that we do. And so, in the discharge of our duties, it is imperative to give the impression that we are acting in the interest of justice”.

Justice Baba-Yusuf therefore granted the accused bail in the sum of N500, 000 with one reliable surety in like sum.

“Accordingly, the accused is hereby granted bail in the sum of N500, 000 and one reliable surety in like sum,” he said, but added that the surety must be a civil servant resident within the FCT.

The accused, according to the judge, would be arraigned on the next adjourned date.

The church members came out to exonerate their pastor, saying he was not somebody of unquestionable character to have engaged in what he was standing trial for in the court.