Police rescue 77 persons — including 26 children — ‘kept in church basement by Ondo pastor’

03 Jul Police rescue 77 persons — including 26 children — ‘kept in church basement by Ondo pastor’

A total of 77 persons — including 26 children — have been rescued by police officers from the basement of a church in Valentino area of Ondo state.

Funmilayo Odunlami, police public relations officer (PPRO) in Ondo state, said the rescued persons have been evacuated to the police command in Akure, the capital of Ondo state.

The police spokesperson explained that although an investigation has been launched into the incident, early findings indicated that the persons were kept in the basement by a pastor preparing for rapture.

Rapture — according to the Christian doctrine — refers to the period of the second coming of Christ when all believers are expected to be taken to heaven.

“It’s a case of suspected abduction,” the police spokesperson said.

“It’s a church-related issue — a pastor who claims that Jesus is coming soon and rapture will take place by September and he harboured all of them in a house.”

She told TheCable on Saturday night, that two pastors of the church have also been arrested over the incident.

Josiah Peters, assistant pastor of Hope Bible Believers Church where the persons were discovered, said the decision to keep people in the church was in obedience to an instruction from God.

“We were having seven days meeting on God’s instruction, that we should lock the gate and be with him for seven days,” he said.