The Ekiti State High Court has sentenced a cleric, Prophet Olakanye Oni, over the circumstances that led to the death of a woman who came to him for spiritual healing.

Justice Abiodun Adesodun on Thursday sentenced the cleric to life imprisonment for manslaughter.

The prosecution team led by Mr Julius Ajibare, the Director of Public Prosecutions, Ministry of Justice, Ekiti State said that “the prophet, sometimes in March 2017, invited one Omowale Gbadamosi from Lagos to Ado Ekiti on the pretence that he (the cleric) had solution to her barrenness.

“On getting to his church at Palace of Mercy, Mathew Street, Odo Ado Area, Ado Ekiti, he collected a sum of N52,000 from the victim. He hypnotised the victim and lured her into his room. He, thereafter, spread a white cloth on her and raped her.

“The convict used white handkerchief to clean the victim’s private part and inserted a substance believed to be potash into her vagina. The victim’s vagina got decayed as a result of the substance inserted into it by the cleric and this resulted into the victim’s eventual death.”

The prosecution called six witnesses to prove the case, while the defence counsel, Chris Omokhafe, called the convict and one other person as witnesses.