Pastor Chris Dpuglas, a 63 years old General Overseer of Peculiar Generation Assembly Church, Oshpdi, has been convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment by the Lagos State Special Offences Court sitting in Ikeja for raping a church member’s daughter.

Delivering judgment on Thursday, Justice Rahman Oshodi held that Douglas abused his position of authority and trust to exploit the victim.

Describing the conduct as a gross breach of trust, the judge said, “The convict occupied a position of spiritual authority and was regarded as a father figure by the victim and her family.”

He added that instead of protecting that trust, the convict “betrayed it in the most reprehensible manner.”

The court held that the abuse occurred in a hotel on several occasions, noting that the victim and her family relied on the cleric for spiritual guidance.

Justice Oshodi further stated that the prosecution proved that the victim suffered severe psychological trauma as a result of the abuse.

“The court accepts the evidence that the victim suffered depression and recurring suicidal thoughts as a direct consequence of the cpnvict’s actions,” he said.

During the trial, the prosecution, led by the Director of Public Prosecution, Dr Babajide Martins, called five witnesses, including the victim, her mother, and a medical doctor.

Medical and documentary exhibits were also tendered in evidence.

The victim told the court that the cleric initially drugged and raped her in September 2017.

“I trusted him like a spiritual father. I never imagined he could do this to me,” she testified.

Her mother also told the court that she confronted the convict after discovering the incident.

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“When I went to his church, he cried and said it was the work of the devil. He begged us in front of the elders,” she said.

The complainant said the matter was later reported to a human rights organisation, the police at Makinde Division, and the Mirabel Centre for a medical examination.

The convict, however, denied the allegations and told the court that the relationship was consensual.

But Justice Oshodi rejected the claim, holding that the evidence before the court established rape beyond a reasonable doubt.

“The defence of consent is not supported by the totality of the evidence before the court,” the judge ruled.

The court reviewed both oral and documentary evidence and considered objections raised by the defence under the Evidence Act, 2011.

While some documents were discounted for non-compliance, the court held that the oral testimony of the medical expert, Dr Maria Fadaka, remained admissible.

In his judgment, the court noted that although some alleged incidents were not sufficiently proved to have occurred before January 2018, the prosecution successfully established rape in relation to incidents when the victim was already 18 years old.

The court consequently discharged the convict on six counts of defilement and sexual assault but found him guilty on three counts of rape.

Justice Oshodi sentenced Douglas to life imprisonment on each count, holding that the sentences shall run concurrently.

“The law must protect the vulnerable, and this court will not hesitate to punish abuse of trust in the strongest terms,” the judge said.

The court also ordered that the convict’s name be entered into the Lagos State Sexual Offenders Register.

The National Vice Chairman (South-West) of the Labour Party, Abayomi Arabambi, has said the party’s doors habeen permanently shut against former presidential candidate, Peter Obi, adding that he will never return to the organization.

Arabambi made the remarks during an interview on News Central on Thursday, dismissing moves by some party stakeholders to bring Obi back into the fold.

“Nenadi will try, but Obi can never come back to Labour Party,” he said, adding that party leaders had already reached an understanding on their political direction.

According to him, the decision followed the party’s internal crisis and consultations among key figures, including Abure-led leadership and Abia State Governor, Alex Otti.

“Because of the intractable crisis… we have all settled that we will support the second term and ambition of Mr President Bola Ahmed Tinubu,” Arabambi stated.

He alleged that former Minister Nenadi Usman was pushing for Obi’s return, insisting such a move would not succeed.

“She should perish that thought… that Peter Obi will come back into the Labour Party,” he said, claiming she was closely aligned with Obi’s political interests.

Arabambi also criticised Obi’s past role in the party, blaming him and his supporters for internal challenges during the 2023 election.

“They were the ones that messed up that election… It wasn’t Tinubu that made us lose 4.7 million votes from 53,000 polling units where they failed to feed the agents,” he said.

He further ruled out any future presidential bid by Obi on the party’s platform, adding that current efforts to reposition the party are focused elsewhere.

“We will not be beating the second time, once beaten twice shy,” Arabambi said.

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By Bonaventure Phillips Melah

Arewa Mandate for Unity and National Rebirth (AMUNR), has criticized former vice president, Atiku Abubakar for his recent attack on former President Goodluck Jonathan.

Atiku, the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the 2023 general election, had on Wednesday described Jonathan’s presidency as a ‘product of inexperience, among other unsavoury remarks.

But reacting to the development on Thursday, AMUNR, through a statement signed by Danladi Luka Ishiaku and Basiru Usman Wakili, National Coordinator and National Secretary respectively, urged Atiku to pursue his presidential ambition without looking for who to blame for his years of political misfortune.

AMUNR said contrary to Atiku’s wrong narrative, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan served Nigeria for 16 uninterrupted years from deputy governor to governor, vice president to acting president and president of the country for five years, adding that he was much more prepared to serve Nigeria at the highest level, with achievements that are yet to be equalled by any Nigerian leader in history.

The group said Atiku has failed to achieve his presidential ambition, partly due to what it described as desperation and impatience which it said was responsible for his movement from PDP to three different parties and back to PDP and now to ADC, saying Atiku would have served as president under the PDP of he had allowed Jonathan to complete his terms without disrupting the system.

It therefore advised the former vice president to blame himself and not Jonathan for his political woes.

AMUNR said- “Our attention has been drawn to the now familiar comments by former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar, who has chosen to substitute revisionism for reality by branding Dr. Goodluck Jonathan’s presidency as a product of “inexperience.” This claim is not just wrong; it is mischievous.

“Dr. Jonathan rose through every constitutional rung of leadership—Deputy Governor, Governor, Vice-President, and Acting President during the national uncertainty that followed the illness of Umaru Musa Yar’Adua. To dismiss that trajectory as “inexperience” is either a willful distortion of facts or a troubling misunderstanding of governance itself.

“But perhaps the more pressing question is this: from what vantage point is this judgment being made?

“Here is a man who has spent decades in perpetual pursuit of the presidency contesting, recalibrating, and returning, yet has never once borne the full weight of that office. It is, therefore, remarkable that someone whose “experience” is defined largely by ambition now seeks to diminish the record of someone whose experience was tested in office, under pressure, and in history’s full glare.

“Under Dr. Jonathan, Nigeria did not drift, it advanced. The economy was rebased, emerging as Africa’s largest. The power sector was unbundled after years of entrenched dysfunction. Agricultural corruption networks were dismantled. Rail and road infrastructure, long abandoned, were revived. These are not opinions; they are verifiable milestones.

“And then came the defining moment: when faced with the choice between personal power and national peace, Dr. Jonathan chose Nigeria. His peaceful concession in 2015 remains one of the most consequential acts of democratic leadership on the continent, an act that secured stability and earned global respect.

“That is what real leadership looks like.

“To now hear that legacy casually reduced to “inexperience” is not merely ironic, it is an attempt to gaslight a nation that lived through, and benefited from, those years.

“Nigerians remember. They remember results. They remember restraint. And they certainly remember who governed, and who merely aspired to.

“If experience is the argument, then the distinction is clear: one man has a record that can be scrutinized; the other has a résumé of repeated attempts.

“Dr. Jonathan’s legacy is not up for casual dismissal. It is written in policy, in progress, and in the democratic stability Nigeria still enjoys today.

“No amount of political revisionism can undo that record,” AMUNR concluded.