OBANDE FESTUS OGBUINYA, J.C.A. (Delivering the Leading Judgment): This appeal queries the correctness of the decision of the High Court of Ondo State, sitting in Akure (hereinafter addressed as the lower Court), Coram judice: S. A. Bola, J., in Charge No. AK/142C/2016, delivered on 19th June, 2017. Before the lower Court, the appellant and the respondent were the accused person and the complainant respectively.
The facts of the case, which transformed into the appeal, are submissive to brevity and simplicity. The appellant was a self-ordained prophet of the Celestial Church of God, Kaduna, who came for a 3-day revival at the Celestial Church of God, Olorunsogo Parish, Oda Road, Akure. One Olumide Olalekan Oladapo, the victim, was a member of the church who attended the revival. On 9th December, 2015, at about 11am, the appellant lured Olumide Olalekan Oladapo to a stream at Apomu, along Ondo Road, Akure, for a bath of spiritual cleansing. While Olumide Olalekan Oladapo was naked in the…