77 churchgoers, including children, were released by Nigerian police from a church’s basement where they had spent several months anticipating the return of Jesus Christ.
When a woman reported her children missing to the authorities and said she thought they had gone to church, officers raided the “Whole Bible Believers Church” in the Valentino neighborhood of Ondo town. When the police arrived at the place of worship, they discovered 77 individuals being protected in the basement by the pastor and his assistant, who had informed them of Jesus Christ’s second coming.
According to the authorities, the church allegedly exhorted members to “remain in the basement” and wait for the rapture.
The assistant pastor of Whole Bible Believers Church started telling the congregation that the Lord had promised him that Jesus’ second coming will occur in April 2022, which is when this unsettling tale first started. Investigators found that some of the 34 youngsters and 43 adults had been residing within the church since August 2021 and others since January 2022 while they awaited the big day.
Church officials merely adjusted the dates, stating the rapture had been postponed to September 2022, after Jesus’ second coming did not take place in April as predicted.
According to a preliminary investigation, Pastor Josiah Peter Asumosa and his deputy were the ones who initially told the congregation that the kidnapping would occur in April but afterwards claimed that the date had been moved to September 2022. According to Funmilayo Odunlami, a police press secretary, “They told young members to follow.”
Although leaders of the Whole Bible Believers Church have been detained, authorities have not yet discovered any proof that the people discovered in the building’s basement were being held against their will. The evidence demonstrates that people only trusted their religious leaders, and some of the kids merely desired to be present for Jesus’ second coming.
Some of the residents apparently refused to be removed when police arrived and stormed the church, and the kids reportedly insulted the parents who had come to pick them up. Most people insisted on going down stairs freely.
A woman who lives close claimed, “They hold wakes around the clock, and people seldom ever sleep.”
