Nigerian police have released “77 people who were held in the basement of a church by priests preaching the ascension of Christian believers to heaven with the second coming of Jesus Christ”, noting that “there are 23 children, some of them not eight years old, among the people who were saved on Friday night from a church in Ondo State.

Local residents told The Associated Press that “some members of the Holy Bible Church” have been there since last year.

“Priests at a church located 75 kilometers from the capital urged parishioners to stay and wait for the unprecedented ecstasy,” Nigerian police spokeswoman Ondo Fonmilayo Odonlamy said. They find evidence that church members were abused or forced to stay in the basement.”

Nigeria is a deeply religious country and its religious leaders are revered.