Lagos - A Lagos court sentenced a Nigerian evangelical preacher to death by hanging on Thursday after finding him guilty of dousing seven members of his congregation with petrol and setting them ablaze, killing one.
Emeka Ezeuko, known by his followers as Reverend King, had denied the six-count charge against him. He said the victims were burnt when an electric generator exploded.
Prosecution witnesses told the court Ezeuko had tortured them in his Lagos home to force them to confess to fornication, then set them alight as a punishment for their sins.
A witness at the Lagos High Court said Ezeuko, who has the right to appeal, reacted defiantly to his sentencing.
"I am not afraid to be hanged. After all Jesus Christ was hanged. That was how Jesus was hanged and the crowd was against him. It is a great honour for me to follow the footpath of the Lord Jesus Christ," he shouted in the packed courtroom.
The preacher, who also had his followers call him God or "Jesus of our time", had been in custody since August and his trial threw up lurid details of abuse that were splashed all over the newspapers.
The case was a scandal in Nigeria, where evangelical churches are hugely successful and millions of their followers often gather for day-long "gospel crusades" in vast "prayer camps".
Two witnesses said Ezeuko had repeatedly abused them sexually. One said she usually served him his meals naked and she had had four abortions after Ezeuko made her pregnant.