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Nigerian police have rescued more than 75 people, including at least 26 children, who may have been held against their will in a basement of a church in the state of Ondo in the southwestern part of the African country.
According to a statement from the state police, it was decided after tips from people in the local community that children against their will were inside the strictly literal Christian church (Whole Bible Believer Church).
One of the children is only eight years old.
Residents in the area have told the news agency AP that several members of the parish have been kept in the church basement since last year.
According to what the police – who rescued the people on Friday – have found so far, the people have been in the church after priests said that they must wait for a signal from God, a so-called “rapture”, before they can be sure of getting to heaven. after his death.
Two priests have been arrested, state police spokesman Funmilayo Odunlami said, while emphasizing that there is no evidence that parishioners “have been abused and / or forced” to stay in the church.
The otherwise relatively peaceful Ondo received dark attention in early June when men armed with firearms and explosives attacked a Catholic church in the state. At least 40 people, several of them children, are reported killed in that attack. No group has so far claimed to be behind that act.
Other parts of Nigeria, including the northern and central parts of the country, have long been plagued with security problems due in part to Islamist terrorist groups.