Pastor’s Wife Raped To Death In Rivers

Rivers State-based Pastor, Lawyer Steward, has charged the State Command of the Nigeria Police Force and the government to get him justice over the sexual assault and murder of his wife by some suspected cult group members.

The cleric, who is said to be an Assistant Pastor in Seventh Day Adventist Abarikpo, in the Ahoad East Local Government Area of Rivers State, told a Human Rights group that his wife was abducted on Sunday morning, February 12, 2023.

The lifeless body of the victim, Chigbewejim Remember Steward, was reportedly found at about 10:00 am, a few hours after her abduction. Reports said her body was found with multiple injuries and blood in her private part.

“I am the husband of Chigbejim Lawyer, who some group of boys murdered after raping her; they murdered her. I am not a cultist. I am an Assistant Pastor in charge of Evangelism at Seventh Day Adventist Church Abarikpo. Everybody in my community knows I am not a cultist,” the cleric said.

Pastor Steward revealed that his wife gave birth to three children, and one is late.

“I am telling the Government that those who murdered my wife should be brought to justice. Though one Aka Sunday, a Cultist claimed he slaughtered my wife, that my wife talked against him, and that people told him my wife always talked against him. The Sunday is a cultist that is the reason he murdered her?” the bereaved cleric asked.

Naija News learnt that the Ahoada Police Division in Ahoada town, Ahoada LGA, led by the DPO, visited the scene on Sunday evening.

Confirming the incident, the Public Relations Officer of Igbu Akoh Clan Youth Congress, Ekeakita Hector Chinem, said there had been a series of killings in the Akoh community.

“When they kill, nobody goes after the bad boys. No security people go after the bad boys. No Political leaders go after the issue. People are afraid. You report or don’t report what will happen will happen,” he said.

“So people are living in fear. The killing of the woman is not cult-related because she is a married woman. Late last year, we witnessed eleven killings in that community. Of the eleven killed last year, a member of one of the cult groups went to their camp and collected the AK 47 of their master and ran away to their community at Abarikpo.

Only for the cult leader to send his boys to lavish innocent lives, of which eleven persons were killed, and till today, no Investigation, no action was taken by the Police, nothing?

In a statement via its social media page, the Centre for Basic Rights Protection and Accountability Campaign condemned the act.

The National Coordinator of the group, Prince Wiro, called on the Police to ensure the full weight is brought on the perpetrators.

The Human Rights group said: “We are shocked that the suspected gang leader who carried out the heinous and dastardly act is still moving around in the community as revealed by the deceased woman’s husband in an interaction with the Centre.

“We call on the Rivers State Police command and appropriate security agencies to immediately arrest the culprits and bring the full weight of the law against anyone found culpable in the course of investigation with a view to serving desired justice on the matter.”

Centre for Basic Rights sympathized with the bereaved family and prayed to God to give Pastor Steward, his children and relatives the fortitude to bear the loss.