Maria Amakali and Nuusita Ashipala
WINDHOEK – An Evangelical Lutheran Church in Namibia (Elcin) pastor was arrested on Monday and charged for allegedly raping a young schoolgirl.
The alleged rape took place for a period stretching from when the girl was 16-years- old.
The Grade 8 learner is now 17, police said.
The married pastor, Onesmus Angula, who ministers at Eenghushe Elcin Church in Ongha in the Ohangwena Region, would allegedly lure the victim into a church house he lives in and have sexual intercourse with the learner without her consent.
According to the Namibian Police (Nampol) weekly crime report, the sexual violation occurred between January and August this year. “The accused used to call the victim into his church house and had sexual intercourse with her whenever she was going or coming from school for several times without her consent,” said Nampol’s spokesperson Chief Inspector Kaunapawa Shikwambi.
It is alleged that the accused bought the victim a cellphone in an attempt to buy her silence on the matter. Furthermore, he gave her contraceptives to prevent pregnancy.
New Era understands that Angula once went to the girl’s house to ask her grandmother to release her as she was nominated to attend a church gathering over the weekend.
Instead, he spent the weekend with the girl at his church house and repeatedly had intercourse.
He only let her return home on Sunday evening, sources say.
“He even went to conduct the church sermon that Sunday while the girl was at his home and returned to continue defiling her before releasing her on Sunday,” a local source told New Era yesterday.
Angula was denied bail yesterday and his case was remanded to October 31. In an unrelated incident, a case of rape was opened in Grootfontein on Friday. It is alleged that at around 02h00, a woman was ambushed and raped by a 21-year-old unknown man while she was sleeping in her bedroom.
“It is further alleged that while she was asleep, she felt someone on top of her and this woke her up. The suspect told her that he will kill her if she screams, then he ordered her to remove her clothes and he allegedly continued to rape her until 04h00, then he just stood up and left,” said Shikwambi.
After the gruesome act and the suspect had fled the scene, the victim alerted her family members.
The suspect has been arrested and is due to appear in court on rape charges.