A female sickle cell patient, Euphemia Ede, has accused a popular bishop of deceiving her into having sex with him as a way of helping her to get healing from her condition.
The cleric, Samuel Onyeagoziri, is the general overseer of Champions of the Truth Church in Abakaliki, the Ebonyi State capital.
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Ms Ede, while appearing as a guest in a podcast recently, claimed the cleric had been sleeping with her since 2021 while she was still a secondary school student.
A video clip of the podcast was uploaded on Facebook on Monday.
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PREMIUM TIMES understands that Ms Ede’s comments came shortly after a sex tape involving her and the cleric went viral.
Mr Onyeagoziri, according to Ms Ede, had claimed the sex tape was an “AI manipulation.”
“It is not AI generated. I am the girl in that video. I have been begging him to delete it since 2021, but he refused. Now he is lying to cover up,” Ms Ede said during the podcast interview.
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Sickle cell complications
Ms Ede, in the podcast, recalled that she had lost three of her siblings due to sickle cell complications.
She said her parents were desperate to save her from a similar fate when they were introduced to the cleric, apparently for “spiritual solution.”
According to her, the cleric promised healing but insisted that the only “remedy” was for her to sleep with him for seven consecutive days.
Ms Ede, then a virgin in senior secondary school 3, said she reluctantly agreed out of fear for her life and in the hope for healing.
“He told me that once he sleeps with me (for) seven days, my genotype will change from SS to AA. He even said many people had been healed that way.
“I was desperate, my parents were desperate, and so I had no option. He is the one that broke my virginity,” she recounted tearfully.
She said, contrary to Mr Onyeagoziri’s claims, her condition did not change despite having repeated sexual intercourse with the cleric.
Ms Ede said her sickle cell crisis worsened instead even as she remained in the bishop’s house under threats.
The victim further alleged that the bishop threatened her life with a rifle and forced her to pose for nude photographs during the encounters.
“People see those pictures and say I was smiling, but they don’t know it was out of fear. He said if I didn’t obey, he would kill me and no one would know what happened,” she said in the podcast.
‘Threats to marry’
Ms Ede said she had attempted to leave the cleric’s house between 2021 and 2025, but the cleric often resisted while threatening her and her family.
The victim said the matter escalated in 2025 when the cleric allegedly demanded to marry her despite being a married man and old enough to be her grandfather.
The development has elicited widespread criticism across Ebonyi State with many residents calling on law enforcement agencies, the Christian Association of Nigeria, and women’s rights groups to investigate and prosecute the cleric.
Arrest
Mr Onyeagoziri was later arrested on Wednesday at his residence in Abakaliki, Ebonyi State capital, PREMIUM TIMES gathered.
Our reporter spotted the cleric while he was writing his statement on Thursday morning at the office of the Crack Team of the police in the police headquarters in Abakaliki.
READ ALSO: How pastor allegedly raped two sisters in his church Police
When contacted on Thursday, the police spokesperson in the state, Joshua Ukandu, confirmed the arrest of the cleric to PREMIUM TIMES.
Mr Ukandu, a superintendent of police, said the cleric was arrested in response to a petition against him on the matter.
“(The) investigation is ongoing. So, he is with the police,” he said.
PREMIUM TIMES could not reach Mr Onyeagoziri for his comments as of the time of this report.
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