*No: We’re keeping them in preparation for ‘rapture’, says pastor
The Ondo State Police Command has rescued about 77 persons, including 26 children, from the basement of a church in Valentino area of Ondo, Ondo State.
The State Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), Funmilayo Odunlami, confirmed the development on Saturday.
She added that the rescued persons, who were kept in the church basement without their consent, have been evacuated to the State Police Command in Akure, the state capital.
Odunlami further disclosed that an investigation has been launched into the incident, adding that early findings showed that the abducted persons were kept in the basement by a pastor in preparation for ‘rapture’.
She said, “It’s a case of suspected abduction. 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.”
Odunlami also stated that two pastors in the church have been arrested over the incident.
Incidentally, an Assistant Pastor of Hope Bible Believers Church, where the abducted persons were discovered, Josiah Peters, claimed that the decision to keep people in the church was in obedience to an instruction from God.
He further claimed that, “We were having seven days meeting on God’s instruction, that we should lock the gate and be with him for seven days.”
