On June 1, 2022, no fewer than 77 people compromising 54 adults and 23 Children were allegedly hypnotized, abducted and kept in the underground cell of a church known as Whole Bible Believer Church by the pastor of the Church, Anifowose David and his 45-year-old assistant, Josiah Peter.
The Church is located at the Valentino area of Ondo town, in Ondo West Local Government Area of the state.
It was reported that the assistant pastor, Josiah Peter, claimed rapture was going to take place by September, hence he encouraged the church members to stay behind in the church.
Pronto, the Christian Association of Nigeria through its President, Samson Ayokunle, disowned the pastor and his assistant, saying the pastor and his church are not members of the association at all levels.
A statement by the CAN President’s Special Assistant (Media and Communications), Adebayo Oladeji, said no true pastor would claim to know the date of rapture because the Bible has stated it clearly that it is only God who knows the date.
However, the story became glaring when the rescued Victims refused to leave police custody.
Briefing Journalists on Monday on the latest development, at Command headquarters in Akure, the Police Public Relations Officer in the state, Funmilayo Odunlami said despite different appeals, the victims vow to remain in the police custody until their pastor and his assistant are released.
Odunlami said: “Some of the parents said if not for what happened, they were not aware that their children have left school while some said they were aware that their children were in church but didn’t know the church.
“Despite all our thoughts, some of this victims refused to go home, saying they are ready to remain in the police custody until their pastor and his assistant are released.
The biggest irony is that, they believe that their boss is going through an equivalent of “The Last Temptation” and that he will return from death’s door-post.
While reacting, the State Governor, Oluwarotimi Akeredolu (SAN) said the government is working out modalities to rehabilitate those that need rehabilitation and might go legally by taking custody of the children.
Akeredolu, through the Commissioner for Women Affairs and Social Development in the state, Adebunmi Osadaun said: “We just interviewed some of the children who are between aged 11 to 17 years old. The way they spoke seems they have been hypnotized. They speak with so much confidence that God will soon come (rapture) and they are on a 7 day camp. They have not eaten for seven days and they still want to go on fasting.
“What baffles me as a mother is that these children are already hardened from the interview we conducted with them. They are indoctrinated. Some of the parents of the children even told us that they left the church when they started seeing some strange things.
“We also want to know if the Pastor partially believe there should be no education, then was his own children not educated and we were made to know that he has two children who are educated and graduated and now equally members of the church”, the governor stressed.
Akeredolu noted that “the parents also alleged that the children refused to take immunisation and the children confirmed that. They said it’s evil to take immunisation.
“We also want to have a data base of the children through family tracing from the Ministry so that we can get how these children were hypnotised and indoctrinated. And if they need rehabilitation, then we would have to go legally by taking custody of the children.
“The way some of the children are talking, some of them should even be taken to the rehabilitation homes. They are living in different world entirely. They look so wired”, the governor added.
In 2006, a Christian preacher from Anambra State, Chukwuemeka Ezeugo, simply known as Reverend King, rose to nationwide recognition following the murder of a church member, Ann Uzoh. Rev King was subsequently sentenced to death in January 2007 and his conviction was later upheld by the Supreme Court of Nigeria on 26 February 2016.
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On January 27 2022, the Pastor in charge of Spirit-Filled International Christian Church, Olomore, Abeokuta, Ogun State, Timothy Oluwatimilehin, was arrested for allegedly having sexual relations with a woman and her two daughters.
The pastor was alleged to have asked the woman to move out of her husband’s home to live with him. She reportedly moved into his apartment with her two daughters and a sexual relationship ensued between the four of them.
On December 10, 2021, men of the Ondo State Police Command arrested a pastor of a white garment church for allegedly raping a pregnant woman.
According to the victim, identified as Bukola, the pastor allegedly committed the crime while she came for deliverance at his church.
In April 2020, the General Overseer of the Holy Ghost Mission Church, Pastor Peter Alatake, was arraigned before an Owo Magistrate court for raping a 16-year old epileptic secondary school student.
The victim was said to have been taken to his church for deliverance but Alatake ended up raping the girl severally.
Church Needs to go Back to Discipleship
Reuben Abati, Special Adviser on Media and Publicity to President Goodluck Jonathan between year 2011 and 2015 once opined that these kind of mad devotion to so-called men of God is one of the biggest problems in Nigeria.
According to Abati, “each time the bubble bursts, the people reel in disbelief or they resort to anger. They are shocked to discover that the man they regard as saint is not a saint. They call him daddy but he is worse than an animal. They trust him but he is most undeserving. He is at best a flawed being like every one else. In Nigeria, every man of God who falls rises again elsewhere.
“Religion in Nigeria is at best a scam, or so it seems, in other words a cover for the Nigerian problem and the lack of commitment to a rational solution. This is the problem that bad Christians and bad Muslims have caused”, he lamented.
Also, former presidential aide and social media commentator, Reno Omokri recently said some religious centres have become most dictatorial institutions in Nigeria.
He said: “Too often, it is a one-man show. The founder or overseer runs the church, with his family, and there is very little, if any, corporate governance. And the sad thing is that these men have often used, or allowed to be used, emotional manipulation (which many of them, but not all of them) pass off as a move of God. You see, man is a fallen being. That is a fact. Being born again does not change that in the physical, though it may change it in the spiritual.
“Thus, the quote by Lord Acton that “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely” is as true in these churches, as it is in any other human institution. The abuse of Psalm 105:15, “Touch not mine anointed, and do my prophets no harm”, has seen many Pentecostal preachers transform into demigods and their churches are now places where people go to consume religious opium that keeps them mystified and in a state where they are open to manipulation by the power of suggestion.
“This explains why these churches and their pastors, or founders, are becoming so much like the politicians we criticise. It is almost, if not exactly as George Orwell described in his book, Animal Farm: “The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which”, he stressed.
Can Pastors Model Contentment?
A leadership and system development strategist and minister of the word, Ayo Akerele, asserted that when the church becomes stronger in values, the nation will become stronger in values.
He said: “We can hold ten services in our churches but let these ten services produce Christ-like Christians who will not disgrace Christ at home and in their places of work. Let’s bring sense back to our churches and to our ministries. Let’s stop honouring false teachings and corrupt leaders.
“Rather, let’s start praying for them to repent and come back to God. Ultimately, when the church becomes stronger in values, the nation will become stronger in values. The buck stops at the table of the light of the world, the church of Christ”.
He stressed that if Pastors can model contentment, Nigeria will get better for it.
“Our Pastors in the 70s and 80s were contended with their 100, 200, 300 or 1000 members. Our pastors never courted corrupt politicians, nor were they associated with burying things under their church buildings. If a pastor dared to cross the boundaries of sexual decency, the consequences were severe.
“He would be disciplined, suspended, and made to face the full scale of restoration. And they even considered it an act of mercy and love. Our pastors modelled Christ to the minutest details. Despite the fact that there were excesses, those excesses now pale besides the reality of today’s church.
“Believers were respected and revered. Who would you employ to your organisation but a believer. Why? They would not cheat, lie or steal. Every corrupt person avoided a believer like plague. Why? They will spoil business for you. Our marriages were not perfect, but our men and our women feared God”, he added.
Thus, people must avoid rushing to churches where miracles are being performed and go to where they will be saved because the number one miracle should be of salvation of souls.
If Africans would only read Scripture for themselves instead of depending on what their church denominations or pastors tell them, Africa would be a less religious continent and a most faithful continent.
