Popular preacher, Walter Magaya, leader of the Prophetic Healing and Deliverance (PHD) Ministries yesterday accused a top Harare police officer and some Harare residents of orchestrating a $500 000 extortion plot against him prior to sensational accusations that he had raped a Midlands State University student.
Magaya was arrested in August on allegations that he raped the 25-year-old student but the woman has since written an affidavit requesting the State to drop the charges saying she had been pressured by yet unnamed people to nail the preacher and claimed she was in fact never raped.
Yesterday, a video was circulating on social media in which Magaya is filmed talking about the extortion prior to his arrest but his spokesperson, Admire Mango said they were now ready to expose the people who were behind the saga.
Mango said in a statement yesterday: “May I place it on record that we have full evidence including recordings showing that at a meeting that took place at a senior police officer’s office sometime in June, there was an attempt to extort … Magaya money ranging from $100 000 to $500 000.
“The case involved a guy who claimed to be the girl’s (the rape complainant) boyfriend who claimed he had evidence of rape against the prophet all of which was not true.
“The senior police officer during the meeting, which was being recorded, kept pushing us to pay the alleged boyfriend but the prophet flatly refused.
“The recording was for more than an hour but today, (yesterday) the people behind the prophet’s arrest released a heavily edited version to try and portray that …Magaya wanted to silence the boyfriend.
“But the truth of the matter is that this is all an extortion scandal which did not succeed and in the same video trying to tarnish the prophet it’s all being revealed.
“When Prophet Magaya refused to be extorted, he was then arrested.
“You may recall that in the affidavit, in which the woman is withdrawing charges, she is clearly stating that she was under pressure by people who wanted to nail … Magaya and who threatened to harm her if she did not destroy him.
“We have reason to believe that the people behind the video circulating on social media are the ones who wanted to harm the woman.
“The people involved obliterated their images from the video and left only …Magaya speaking about his meeting with the alleged woman’s boyfriend.
“But it was an effort to extort the man of God who is now being punished for refusing to be part of the extortion,” said Mango.
Magaya’s case has been referred to the Constitutional Court as the Prosecutor General’s office is refusing to drop the charges despite that the woman dropped the charges. Daily News
