Port Elizabeth - A Nigerian pastor charged with human trafficking, sexual assault and the rape of young girls is expected to apply for bail based on new facts in the Port Elizabeth Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday.
On July 24, the televangelist, who cannot be named, was back in the Port Elizabeth Magistrate’s Court after he was initially expected to appear via a video link up broadcast from St Albans prison.
The pastor has now appointed attorneys from the firm Mcloughlin Porter in Vereeniging. At the time, defence attorney, James Riley, said that legal counsel would be flying in to Port Elizabeth to conduct the pastor’s defence.
The pastor, who is based in Durban, is alleged to have trafficked more than 30 girls and women who were from various branches of his church countrywide. He allegedly took the girls to a house in Umhlanga, in KwaZulu Natal, where he sexually exploited them.
The pastor was arrested by the Hawks at the Port Elizabeth airport in April and has been in custody ever since.
He was refused bail last month after Magistrate Thandeka Mashiyi found that he was a flight risk and was likely to interfere with State witnesses.