Society Gists

The Foursquare Gospel Church in Nigeria has suspended Dr Boniface Igbeneghu of the University of Lagos (UNILAG). Igbeneghu was allegedly involved in the sex-for-grades scandal exposed by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). He has been suspended from all ministerial assignments.

Foursquare also dissociated itself from the “heinous and unscriptural acts” of Igheneghu.

This was contained in a statement issued on Monday by the National Secretary of the church, Rev Ikechukwu Ugbaja. Meanwhile, the statement was shared on social media by BBC reporter, Kiki Mordi.

Further, the church pledged to investigate the allegation and take appropriate sanctions.

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.

Igbeneghu, a Foursquare pastor, caught on camera grooming a minor

“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.”

As part of the BBC investigations, a 17-year-old undercover reporter was used by the BBC in exposing the lecturer.

Igbeneghu, who invited the teenager to his office for a number of tutorials, subsequently began to have inappropriate conversations with her.

Despite repeated requests, the lecturer failed to react to the BBC’s allegations. Also, authorities of UNILAG dissociated itself from the lecturer’s actions.