It started with just ₦1,500 — the price of a school textbook. But for one family in Atan, Ogun State, that small sum unleashed a tragedy so deep it tore their world apart, exposed the evil hiding behind a pastor’s cassock, and left their young daughter scarred for life.
Two and a half years ago, Blessing (not her real name), a bright 12-year-old in Primary Six, was sent home because she could not pay for her textbook. It was a sweltering afternoon. Her mother, a struggling hairdresser, was at her roadside stall, while her father — an electrician — had travelled to Lagos for work.
As Blessing stood helplessly outside her school gate, the family’s trusted neighbour, Pastor Oluwole Jonathan, shepherd of Christ Apostolic Church, Land of Mercy, called out to her. He invited her into his apartment to rest while she waited for her parents. Innocently, she obeyed — unaware that the man she called Pastor would destroy her childhood that day.
By nightfall, the 12-year-old girl had lost her innocence. A year later, she became a mother at 13.
A Home Silenced by Shame
When journalists visited Atan months later, the family’s compound had fallen into eerie quiet. The once-busy church — Christ Apostolic Church, Land of Mercy — now stood abandoned beside the family’s former home, its doors locked, its signboard rusting, its walls covered in dust.
Neighbours whispered that the family fled to Ifo to escape the trauma, the stigma, and the “strange occurrences” that began haunting their daughter after the assault.
When the family was eventually traced to a modest home in Pakoto, Ifo, Blessing — now a withdrawn teenage mother — was called from the tailoring shop where she was learning a trade. She entered the room quietly and knelt to greet, her small frame trembling.
“It happened on a Tuesday,” she began softly, eyes fixed on the floor. “I was sent home to bring ₦1,500 for my textbook. Pastor saw me and asked why I wasn’t in school. I told him I came to collect money. He said I looked sick and gave me medicine. I said my mummy told me not to take medicine from people, but he said, ‘Am I a stranger to you?’ After I drank it, I slept off. When I woke up… there was blood.”
Her voice broke. “He told me not to tell anyone — that I would die if I did.”
“I Thought It Was Fever” — Mother’s Cry
Her mother, sitting beside her husband on a wooden bench, wept as she relived the nightmare.
“She complained of body pain and headache,” the woman recalled. “I thought it was fever. Then someone in the neighbourhood said something was not right with her body. When I tested her, the result came back positive. I took her to the hospital — and the doctor said she was five months pregnant. I almost fainted.”
Her husband, visibly shaken, muttered: “When she said it was Pastor Jonathan… my world collapsed. He wasn’t just our neighbour — he was my spiritual mentor. His wife was my wife’s friend.”
The case was reported to the community chairman and later to the police. DNA testing confirmed the pastor as the baby’s father. He finally confessed after denying it for months.
Justice, But No Peace
The International Federation of Women Lawyers (FIDA), Ogun State chapter, took up the case pro bono, with support from Spring Centre, an NGO that provided counselling, shelter, and medical care for Blessing.
After months of trial, the High Court in Ilaro found Pastor Oluwole Jonathan guilty of defilement and, in January 2025, sentenced him to 21 years in prison.
But even that judgment did not heal the wounds.
Blessing’s return to school failed — she began wandering off without reason, claiming to hear “voices” urging her to leave. She would disappear for days, only to be found at police stations miles away.
Out of fear for her safety, her father withdrew her from school and placed her in a tailoring workshop opposite their home — where her mother could watch over her.
A Law Too Late
As the Senate moves to enact life imprisonment for the defilement of minors, Blessing’s story stands as a grim reminder of what happens when predators wear the mask of holiness.
For a mere ₦1,500 — money meant for a child’s textbook — a family lost their peace, a little girl lost her future, and a community lost its faith in the cassock that once symbolised safety.
And though the court’s judgment has been passed, the real sentence — the one etched in the heart of a 13-year-old mother — may never end. /Additional report by Vanguard