The Foursquare Gospel Church has suspended the University of Lagos (UNILAG) lecturer, Dr Boniface Igbeneghu involved in BBC’s sex-for-grade undercover investigation.
Dr. Igbeneghu, who is one of the pastors of Foursquare Gospel Church in Nigeria, was today asked to step down shortly after the viral video of him was caught on tape soliciting intimacy from an undercover journalist who posed as a 17-year-old minor seeking admission in the school went viral all over Africa.
In the video, Igbeneghu the so-called pastor and senior lecturer at UNILAG was seen having series of inappropriate conversations with the supposed minor as he even told her at a point to put off the light and kiss him for a minute.
The lecturer also asked the lady about her sex life just after praying for her to give her life to Christ. On another occasion, he told her to move closer to him on a chair to kiss him, when she showed reluctance, he joked that she was stiff.
Obviously portraying the Foursquare Church where he pastors in a bad light, the religious institution has now distanced itself from him.
The church in a statement by the National Secretary of the church, Rev Ikechukwu Ugbaja, dissociated itself from the “heinous and unscriptural act” of Igheneghu, as he was asked to step down.
The statement reads: “The attention of the leadership of the Foursquare Gospel Church in Nigeria has been drawn to a video clip trending on social media platforms titled, ‘Sex for grades: Undercover in West Africa Universities – BBC News’ wherein a lecturer at the University of Lagos named Boniface Igbeneghu, also described as a pastor in Foursquare Gospel Church, was allegedly involved in sexual misconduct with some female students of the university.
“The general public is hereby informed that as holiness and Bible-believing church, we do not condone such heinous and unscriptural acts among our ministers.
“We totally dissociate ourselves from the purported conduct of Dr Igbeneghu and promise to take appropriate measures as soon as the ongoing investigation is concluded.
“Meanwhile, the pastor in question has been asked to step down from all ministerial assignments.”