Dozens 'Waiting For Second Coming Of Christ' Freed From Nigerian Church

Dozens of people who had been awaiting the rapture have been rescued from a church in Nigeria, according to police.

According to BBC reports, some of the people—several of whom were children—who were rescued had been in the church in the southwest state of Ondo for months.

Police told the network that 26 children, eight teenagers and 43 adults had been freed from the church.

A Nigeria Police Force spokesperson said many of those who were freed had waited for the second coming of Jesus Christ in April and had stopped attending school in order to witness the supposed event.

The second coming is a belief among many Christians that Jesus Christ will return to Earth and will judge those worthy to ascend into heaven.

Ondo police said they carried out an investigation in the Valentino area of Ondo Town after a mother complained about her missing children and believed they were at the Whole Bible Believers Church, according to the BBC.

The network added the Pentecostal church pastor, David Anifowoshe, and his deputy had been arrested and that the victims had been removed from the church.

According to the BBC, police press officer Funmilayo Odunlami said: "Preliminary investigation revealed [that] an assistant pastor in the church was the one who told members that rapture will take place in April, but later said it had been changed to September 2022 and told the young members to obey only their parents in the Lord."

Newsweek has contacted the Nigeria Police Force for comment.

According to Statista, Islam was followed by 53.5 percent of the Nigerian population while 45.9 percent of people in the country follow a denomination of Christianity.

The African country has recently experienced religious violence, with some 40 people having been killed in an attack on a church earlier this year.

Gunmen opened fire at the St. Francis Catholic Church in Ondo, and set off explosive devices to injure those who fled.

In previous years, Nigerian soldiers have attempted to repel attacks and abductions by the Islamic terrorist organization Boko Haram.

The Nigerian government has struggled to contain the group, which has launched attacks in the Lake Chad region, that left some 2.6 million people displaced as a result of a decade of violence.

Boko Haram has killed tens of thousands of people in Nigeria in a bid to build an Islamic caliphate in the country.