Ondo church kept kidnapped kids in basement for over 6 months - Group

A group, Ekimogun Youths Connect, has claimed that the children rescued from an underground facility of a church in Ondo state were held in confinement for over six months.

Pulse reports that police swooped in on the church on Friday night and rescued about 50 kidnapped children who had been kept in the church's basement.

The victims alleged that they were forcefully converted to Christianity having been brought to the house against their will.

The group, in a statement by its president, Mr Famakinwa Lucaskakaki and obtained by The Punch, said it swung into action together with the police and the Amotekun officers to rescue the victims.

The statement read in part, “About 14:00hrs of yesterday, Friday 1st of July, 2022, I was reliably informed that a particular Church in Valentino, Ondo City, called ‘Ondo Church’ , locked people up in the church for over six months, telling them that Jesus Christ will come and meet them by September this year.

“The National President of the Great Constitutional Rights and Justice Forum, in person of Comrade Omotayo Omolayo, was also briefed and we mobilised down to the venue and we met about 50 people locked up in the church.

“The church has rooms where the pastor locked his members. The process of rescuing these ones with the help of Police officers, Amotekun, Atariajanaku and vigilante group, caused a lot of pandemonium that the people under lock started beating us.

“The pastor, the church workers and the people under lock have been arrested and whisked to Akure.”

The kids, alongside the pastor and some members of the church, have since been taken to the police headquarters for interrogation on Saturday, July 2, 2022.