An alleged Celestial Church of Christ (CCC) serial rapist, Jacob Farinmade, and two others have been arranged before an Ikeja Domestic Violence and Sexual Offences Court by the Lagos State Government on an eight-count charge of rape and abusing the corpses of their congregants.
Farinmade is being charged alongside two other clerics of the church, Abraham Olujobi and Olatunde Taiwo on the same offence, this is even as they all pleaded not guilty to three charges. Farinmade pleaded not guilty to a five-count charge of rape, unlawful detention and unlawful burial in a house.
According to the lead state prosecutor, Mr Olusola Soneye, the defendants, who were in charge of the Celestial Church of Christ Gospel Mission at No. 15/23 Pipeline Street, Ipaja, Lagos, committed the offences in 2015 in Lagos.
“The defendants sometime in 2015, indecently cut open the corpse of Deborah Elijah to separate her from her foetus before burial.
“They treated the corpse of one Olubunmi Saliu in an undignified manner by burying her in a shallow grave within the church premises,” he said.
Soneye said that Farinmade, while being the reverend in charge of the church, raped three women (names withheld) and unlawfully detained one of the women.
“Farinmade authorised the burial of Deborah Elijah in an adjourning land at the Celestial Church Gospel Mission without the relevant consent of the local government authority,” he said.
The offences contravene sections 144, 165, 260 and 411 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State 2015.
The prosecutor said 13 witnesses are set to testify against the clerics on behalf of the prosecution.
Justice Abiola Soladoye ordered that the clerics continue to be remanded at the Kirikiri Maximum Correctional Centre and adjourned the case until 16th December for trial.
