Hospital carried out abortion , told me it was appendectomy – Mother
Mum lied , we saved girl from ectopic pregnancy – Doctor
He filmed while sleeping with me , says victim
Kunle Falayi
If there is one thing that Mrs . B . regrets most in her life, it is the day she walked into the Royal Heritage Church, Mafoluku , Lagos , for the first time .
Shortly after that day , with her teenage daughter in tow , she approached the pastor of the church , Tunde Daniel , a man in his 50 s with two wives , and sought his spiritual help on the girl’ s plan to become a model .
Mrs . B . told Saturday PUNCH that the pastor had told her he could make a super model out of the girl.
Because of the sensitivity of this case , Saturday PUNCH decided to keep the family anonymous .
But Mrs . B . said the moment she approached the pastor for help was the day she lost control of her daughter , who is now 16 years old . For more than a year , Mrs . B said she was struggling to get a grip of her life and win her daughter back from the hold Pastor Daniel allegedly had on her.
From that moment on began a relationship that allegedly snowballed into a sexual slavery for Mrs . B ’ s daughter .
According to her, it got to a point that if she gave her daughter an instruction , her obedience would depend on whether the pastor agreed or not.
The girl would occasionally visit the married pastor at his 8 , Owolabi Street, Mafoluku , Lagos .
Mrs . B said , “ My daughter suddenly became distant and she no longer listened to me . Then , one day , she ran away from home . I was at my shop when she ran away and her siblings were with me in the shop .
“ I got home and was expecting to see her. I became worried after a few hours, but I still did not see her. Neighbours also could not tell me where she was .
“ It was while searching everywhere for her that I noticed the money I kept in the house had gone .
“ I tried to call Pastor Daniel but could not reach him on the phone and I went to his house. When I got there , I was told he was not around and for four days, my daughter was missing .
“ Few days later , Pastor Daniel brought her back home in the evening . When I asked where she had been, she ignored me and when I asked the pastor, he shouted at me . ”
Mrs . B . warned her daughter to stay away from the pastor but all she got in response was the rebuff .
According to her, Tunde continued to meet with the girl in secret.
Mrs . B . explained that unknown to her, the sexual abuse her daughter allegedly suffered in the hands of the pastor started in 2016 when the girl was still 15 .
“ She said that anytime she went to school, Pastor Daniel would pick her up there and take her to a hotel .
“ One day in late February, 2017 , I got a call from a hospital that said my daughter was in a critical condition . I did not know how she ended up in the hospital . At that time , I had lost control over her totally .
“ When I got there , I was told that she had appendicitis and that an emergency surgery must be conducted to save her life. We were asked to look for N368, 000. I called her father who was abroad, to inform him of the case and we quickly paid the money.
“ It was when I saw the surgical scar that I became alarmed and I started petting her and told her to tell me what was going on . That was when she said that the pastor had impregnated her and that what I thought was the removal of her appendicitis was indeed abortion .
“ I wanted to faint . I quickly confronted the doctors at the hospital and they told me that she was brought in by Pastor Daniel, who prevailed on them to say it was appendicitis . They said she had lost a fallopian tube. They said they were only concerned about saving her life. ”
The hospital in question is High Rocks Hospital located on 8, Afariogun Street, Charity Area , Oshodi - Isolo .
However, the apprehensive Mrs . B . , who could no longer handle the matter on her own , contacted the Child Protection Network in Oshodi, who took over the case .
The Coordinator of CPN in Isolo and Ejigbo , Mr. Ebenezer Omejalile, explained that further investigation on the case showed that Daniel’ s ministry was reputed as one dedicated to preying on both innocent girls and married women .
According to him , after the CPN took over the case and it was reported at the Makinde Police Division, Oshodi, Daniel tried to turn the case against the victim’ s family and reported at the anti - kidnapping unit of the Lagos State Police Command that Mrs . B . colluded with some officers at the Makinde Police Division to kidnap him and force him to part with money.
“ The pastor threatened the investigating police officer in charge of the case . He was so confident that nothing was going to happen on the matter . I realised that it was necessary for the Commissioner of Police to hear about the matter , so I wrote a petition to the CP on the matter .
“ The woman called him ‘father in the Lord ’ and trusted him with her daughter . Most shocking was the part that the girl had lost a fallopian tube. When we interrogated the girl further , we realised that the pastor had given her some drugs to abort the pregnancy , which led to the complications . ”
Omejalile said his petition to the Lagos CP was to explain why the case was not a kidnap case as claimed by Daniel, but one that bordered on gross sexual abuse and child endangerment.
Meanwhile, to prevent further contact between the girl and Daniel, the girl’ s family took her away to the South - East to stay with her grandmother .
During her stay in their hometown ,
Saturday PUNCH learnt that the family concluded that the pastor might have put the girl under a spell .
“ She kept repeating that she wanted to have sexual intercourse with Pastor Daniel . We did our best to break her from the curse , ” a family member said on condition of anonymity .
They did not divulge further steps taken to break her free from the purported spell .
However, after months on the case , Omejalile ’s petition to the Lagos CP finally yielded results on Tuesday , November 7. Daniel , who had been walking the streets as a free man since the case was reported at the Makinde Police Division, was invited at the Gender Unit of the Lagos State Police Command Headquarters . He was subsequently detained as investigation and interrogation went on .
At the police headquarters , the girl, who was brought back from the East to give a statement , made more startling revelations .
Omejalile , who was present at the time said , “ The girl said that anytime they had sex , he always recorded it . This is why we are worried at this point because we do not want such videos finding their way to the public . The girl said that he had a box in his room where he kept videos from different sexual encounters . The police said they would go and search his room soon. ”
He explained that when they went to invite the pastor in company with policemen from the command headquarters , the girl was the one used as a bait .
Omejilale said , “ We told her to put the phone on speaker and when the girl called him , he said he would like to see her and that he missed her. The girl said she could not come to his house but could meet him at work .
“ The pastor works as a software engineer in a company at Oshodi . As soon as the girl got to his office , the pastor’ s colleagues started greeting her as ‘ Pastor Daniel ’s daughter ’ . It was clear they were familiar with her. He was then informed that he was wanted at the police headquarters . He thought he could escape by placing a call to the policemen at the anti - kidnapping unit , whom he had reported to earlier . But he was told that he was being invited at the police headquarters by higher authority. ”
Saturday PUNCH learnt that while being questioned at the police headquarters , the girl revealed that Daniel took her on a flight to Abuja at a point .
Mrs . B was asked why she was not aware of all these and how her daughter could embark on such long journeys without her knowledge , but the distraught mother said it was part of the reasons why she said she lost control of her daughter .
The pastor is still being detained by the police .
Meanwhile, the CPN has said once the prosecution of Daniel was underway , it would begin efforts in ensuring that the doctor at High Rocks Hospital, who carried out the abortion was investigated .
When Saturday PUNCH spoke with the head of the hospital , Dr . Femi Oloyede , an associate professor , he explained that the pastor brought the girl to his facility , claiming to be her guardian.
He said , “ The man ( Daniel ) brought in the girl with ectopic pregnancy ( development of foetus in fallopian tube) and we saved her. He said the girl was impregnated by her boyfriend . Our records are there to show what she was treated for. Who impregnated her was not the hospital ’s concern . I was summoned when she was brought in and noticed she was in a very bad shape. She had to be resuscitated. I then said there was nothing we could do if her parents were not present even if he was the guardian as he claimed .
“ The pastor then contacted the mother and she came in. We told her what was wrong with her daughter immediately. When we told them to make a deposit so we conduct an urgent surgery, they declined saying they were taking her to their regular hospital .
“ I wrote them a referral and they left. They later came back in the evening when the girl’ s situation had worsened . They had to beg me to come from home to attend to her. We did the operation and she took about three pints of blood within a space of three hours . She was bleeding inside . She was even on admission for some days after the surgery. If anything was ever in doubt , a responsible parent would have asked . ”
Oloyede said the age of the pregnancy could not be immediately determined but said he believed it must have been about six weeks old .
He also said there was no evidence that there had been an attempt to abort the pregnancy but that the victim’ s fallopian tube ruptured as a result of the ectopic pregnancy.
The doctor explained that he would be happy to assist the police in their investigation .
The spokesperson for the Lagos State Police Command, Mr. Olarinde Famous - Cole , who confirmed that Daniel was still in custody and being quizzed, said the doctor would be invited .
He said , “ The investigation will definitely involve the hospital . The pastor has made some confessional statements.
“ Investigation is ongoing to determine where and when each of the alleged acts took place. Investigators would be conducting a search on the house of the pastor also . ”