![Rev. Fr. Anthony Odiong, a US-based Nigerian Louisiana Catholic priest, was arrested in Florida on Tuesday for possessing child pornography, according to law authorities. The suspect is reportedly accused of many other cases of sexual assault. The Waco, Texas, Police Department announced in a Facebook post on Tuesday that officers detained Father Anthony Odiong in Ave Maria, Florida, with assistance from the United States Marshals Service. Waco police announced in March that they had received "credible information" about a sexual assault allegedly committed by Odiong in Texas in 2012. “During the subsequent investigation, a case of possession of child pornography was uncovered,” the police said. The priest was apprehended in Florida by the Caribbean Regional Fugitive Task Force. The Waco Police Department said that he will be extradited to Texas. Odiong had previously served in the Archdiocese of New Orleans before being removed as priest in December of last year due to controversy over homilies in which he claimed, among other things, that the Catholic Church was being taken over by "the gays." At the time, the priest was also accused of abusive behaviour; a Louisiana lady claimed in U.S. bankruptcy court that Odiong had committed both financial and sexual abuse against her. Prior to joining the New Orleans Archdiocese, Odiong served in at least two Texas parishes. On Tuesday, Waco police stated that during their sexual assault investigation, "the presence of other survivors was revealed." “Multiple women have come forward to tell similar experiences as the sexual assault survivor who reported the initial allegation,” the police department said. “Survivors’ experiences ranged from sexual assault and indecent assault, more commonly recognised as groping, and financial abuse, with some survivors experiencing every element of Anthony Odiong’s manipulation.” The police said they “believe there may be more survivors, and we wish to speak with anyone who [has] had similar encounters” with the priest. The Archdiocese of New Orleans issued a brief news release on Tuesday noting Odiong's arrest in Florida. The archdiocese “encourages anyone with any information to contact law enforcement,” the release said.](https://chronicle.ng/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/ezgif-6-4730550ede-300x200.jpg "Odiong: US-based Nigerian Catholic priest convicted over sexual assault")
Akpan, 24, has been charged with murder in the death of 23-year-old Irene Yemitan.
Yemitan’s body was found on September 5 when Alex Akpan’s mother went into her son’s bedroom at the home they both share and saw a green recycling bin.
She found it strange the bin was in her son’s room instead of the backyard. When she lifted the lid, she discovered a human foot.
Alex Akpan’s mother then tipped over the bin and found Yemitan’s body inside. She called her ex-husband and they alerted authorities and attempted CPR.
Yemitan, an aspiring beauty stylist and student at Houston Community College, was pronounced dead at the scene.
Authorities said there were no obvious signs of trauma on Yemitan’s body, but noted her eyes seemed to signify that she had been strangled.
The county medical examiner has since determined that strangulation was the cause of death.
A witness told police that Irene Yemitan had only met Alex Akpan a few days before her death.
The witness and Yemitan had been at West Oaks Mall when they befriended Alex Akpan, a fellow HCC student who was studying computer science.
Yemitan and Akpan began exchanging phone calls and text messages and she had gone over to his house with the witness on several occasions.
The witness said she had been at Akpan’s house with Yemitan the day before her body was discovered, according to the Houston Chronicle.
She told police that Alex Akpan became upset that day because Yemitan parked her car on the street, scaring them as he threw a chair and screamed and cursed at them.
Yemitan had posted a video on her YouTube page just a day before her body was discovered that was titled ‘LIFE UPDATE?’
In the video she revealed to friends and family that she had been busy with school.
‘Where have I been? What have I been doing? Hold up, I have some explaining to do,’ she told her viewers.
‘I’ve been at school, that’s what I’ve been doing. School, living my best life,’ she happily told the camera.
Yemitan revealed in the video that she was going to start a hair business and had even made business cards.
‘I do have some things I wanna tell y’all, but it’s a surprise,’ she then said. ‘I’ll share that with y’all later.
‘Anyways, I can’t complain. I’m blessed, I’m happy, I’m doing what I need to do. I’m taking care of myself.’
After police arrived at the scene of Alex Akpan’s house, his mother called him and he said he was on his way home and knew what had happened, prosecutors said.
But once he arrived Akpan refused to give a statement to investigators and requested a lawyer, according to KTRK.
He was initially charged with tampering with evidence of a human corpse and was released from custody after posting $10,000 bond. He was arrested again on Wednesday.
Akpan appeared in court on Thursday wearing a black T-shirt with the words #Lightthefuture written on the front.
On the back were the words ‘Psalm 82.3’, a Bible verse that reads: ‘Defend the weak and the fatherless; uphold the cause of the poor and the oppressed’.
Alex Akpan is currently being held on $250,000 bond at Harris County Jail.
Prosecutors had requested he be held on $500,000 bond, claiming he was a flight risk and that authorities had learned his family planned to send him to Nigeria.
The prosecutor also claimed Akpan was an ‘extreme danger to the community’, revealing that he had threatened his sister with a gun last year.
Alex Akpan was charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon in 2017, but his sister asked that the charges be dismissed.
It took authorities a week to identify Yemitan’s body, only discovering her name after sharing photos of her face and the clothes she was wearing when she died.
Friends remembered the aspiring beauty stylist as a girl who remained resilient despite being bullied for her skin color in high school.
‘Her soul was too beautiful for this world,’ Quaneisha Morris told the Houston Chronicle. ‘Irene had the biggest, the most pure heart.’
‘No matter what people did to her or said to her, she was always kind.’
![Rev. Fr. Anthony Odiong, a US-based Nigerian Louisiana Catholic priest, was arrested in Florida on Tuesday for possessing child pornography, according to law authorities. The suspect is reportedly accused of many other cases of sexual assault. The Waco, Texas, Police Department announced in a Facebook post on Tuesday that officers detained Father Anthony Odiong in Ave Maria, Florida, with assistance from the United States Marshals Service. Waco police announced in March that they had received "credible information" about a sexual assault allegedly committed by Odiong in Texas in 2012. “During the subsequent investigation, a case of possession of child pornography was uncovered,” the police said. The priest was apprehended in Florida by the Caribbean Regional Fugitive Task Force. The Waco Police Department said that he will be extradited to Texas. Odiong had previously served in the Archdiocese of New Orleans before being removed as priest in December of last year due to controversy over homilies in which he claimed, among other things, that the Catholic Church was being taken over by "the gays." At the time, the priest was also accused of abusive behaviour; a Louisiana lady claimed in U.S. bankruptcy court that Odiong had committed both financial and sexual abuse against her. Prior to joining the New Orleans Archdiocese, Odiong served in at least two Texas parishes. On Tuesday, Waco police stated that during their sexual assault investigation, "the presence of other survivors was revealed." “Multiple women have come forward to tell similar experiences as the sexual assault survivor who reported the initial allegation,” the police department said. “Survivors’ experiences ranged from sexual assault and indecent assault, more commonly recognised as groping, and financial abuse, with some survivors experiencing every element of Anthony Odiong’s manipulation.” The police said they “believe there may be more survivors, and we wish to speak with anyone who [has] had similar encounters” with the priest. The Archdiocese of New Orleans issued a brief news release on Tuesday noting Odiong's arrest in Florida. The archdiocese “encourages anyone with any information to contact law enforcement,” the release said.](https://chronicle.ng/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/ezgif-6-4730550ede-450x300.jpg "Odiong: US-based Nigerian Catholic priest convicted over sexual assault")
