A pastor has been arrested by the police for allegedly sexually abusing a 17-year-old student, resulting in four months pregnancy.
Reverend Emmanuel Kwaku Mireku, General Overseer of the Panel Faith Ministry at Nkoranza, in Ashanti, was alleged to have had sex with the girl the first day she left for the Universal (Senior High School (SHS) at Koforidua, in the Eastern Region, last January.
He later gave the girl GH�200 out of a total GH�400 to abort the pregnancy but the school authorities detected it and reported the matter to the police, leading to his arrest on Wednesday.
Rev. Mireku was placed in custody at the Sofoline Police station and granted bail the following day to assist in investigations.
He was said to have given some toffees to the girl to make her dazed anytime he wanted to have sex with her and would tell her �It is a spiritual direction�.
A source at the Domestic Violence and Victim Support Unit (DOVVSU) of the Sofoline police confirmed the story to The Ghanaian Times and declined to give further details saying it was being investigated.
The victim�s stepfather, Daniel Owusu Adjei, confirmed to this reporter that the girl is four months pregnant.
He said she was staying with the pastor before leaving for a Senior High School in January, this year, in the Eastern Region and that he (pastor) accompanied them to send the girl to school.
Quoting the girl, he said the pastor even had sex with her on the very day she was leaving for school, adding it was at the school that the pregnancy was detected.
The headmistress of the school, Madam Rose Koomson in a telephone conversation also confirmed the story.
She corroborated that pastor Mireku was in the company of the stepfather when the girl was brought to the school.
Throwing some light, she said it was one of the female students who had been moving with the victim who reported the pregnancy to her, stressing, �I confronted the victim who mentioned the name of the pastor as being responsible for the pregnancy�.
She claimed that the pastor sent some GH�200 to the girl while in school through mobile money transfer to abort the pregnancy and the girl obliged and paid it to a clinic as part payment whiles she waited for the rest of the money.
The headmistress said she bumped into the victim and her friend as they were returning from town late one evening, and because they could not produce any permit they were punished only to learn later that, it was the day they went to withdraw the money the pastor had sent and made part payment to the clinic for the abortion.
She said at a point she gave her phone to the girl and the friend to call the pastor, and when he picked the call they all heard him stressing he was bringing the rest of the money for the abortion and blamed the girl for mentioning his name whilst the conversation was being recorded.
�In fact, I later snatched the device and angrily rebuked him for impregnating the girl and trying to abort it,� Mad, Koomson said.
The Ghanaian Times made efforts to contact the pastor on phone but anytime the call went through either her daughter or a church member picked it and said, �You cannot talk to him now.�
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