A 56-year-old United States-based Nigerian pastor has been jailed 15 years for raping two teenage girls who were part of his congregation.

Aside serving jail time, Reuben Chizor, of the Hope Restoration Ministries Worldwide Inc. Will also have 10 years of post release supervision.

According to the District Attorney of Queens County, Richard A. Brown, Chizor raped both girls in the basement of his church which also served as his residence.

Through manipulation and conniving control, he sexually abused his two young victims for nearly two years. What the defendant forced his victims to endure was horrendous.

‘‘The sexual abuse began with the 14-year-old victim in July 2011 and continued with one or both of the girls through May of 2013,’‘ a statement from the Attorney’s office read.

He raped the 14-year-old on July 27, 2011 before doing same to her 12-year-old sister on August 22 later that year. The girls finally confided in each other over the rape in 2015 following which police was notified.

District Attorney Brown said, “The defendant took advantage of his position as a man of the cloth and the trust placed in him by his followers to satisfy his depraved desires.

‘‘Through manipulation and conniving control, he sexually abused his two young victims for nearly two years. What the defendant forced his victims to endure was horrendous and as punishment he now will be spending a lengthy term behind bars.”

After a week-long trial in June this year, a jury found Chizor guilty of one count each of first- and second-degree rape and first-degree sexual abuse and two counts of endangering the welfare of a child.

In April this year, another Nigerian pastor wanted for alleged sexual assault and human trafficking of young women from his church was arrested by South African police when he arrived in the country.

The 58-year-old Durban televangelist Pastor Timothy Omotoso of the Jesus Dominion International was picked up by armed policemen at the Port Elizabeth Airport toilet minutes after his plane landed from Durban.