By Tony O'Riley-
Nigerian detectives were alarmed when they stormed a prayer house used as a detention camp on Wednesday evening and found 15 men and women aged between 19 and 50 chained by the legs, Lagos police spokesman Bala Elkana said.
The pastor of the church, “prophet” Sunday Joseph Ojo, and 10 others were arrested late Thursday.
Sources from Nigeria said the victims were taken to the Church by their families to seek spiritual help from mental illness and other diseases.” The professed man of God claimed he was trying to detain them and their demons in order to set them free from their mental illness.
The prophet claimed to have been in the healing ministry since 1986, (and) and wanted to prevent the mental people from escape.
Some of the victims had spent five years in the church, he said, adding that further investigations were taking place.
Non-government organisations first alerted police to Ojo’s “Blessing of Goodness Healing Church” in the Ijegun area of Nigeria’s most populous city, according to local reports. It was the first crack down on a Church amid a wider clamp on religious institutions , mainly Islamic schools where victims had been tortured, chained and sexually abused.
Last week police rescued 108 “unfed and sick” inmates from a fake reform centre in Kwara State, central Nigeria.
Image:Von.gov.ng