The Ondo government says the children who were discovered in the basement of a new generation church on Saturday in the state were “hypnotised” by the cleric.

“The way they (children) spoke seems they have been hypnotised,” the Commissioner for Women Affairs and Social Development, Adebunmi Osadaun, told reporters in Akure.

Speaking on Monday, Mrs Osadaun disclosed that the children, who are between the ages of 11 and 17 years old, have been investigated and questioned by the government.

The children were part of 77 worshippers said to be “waiting for rapture” in the building belonging to the Whole Bible Believers Church in the Valentino area of Ondo town.

The police had confirmed that 26 children and 8 teenagers were among the Christian worshippers rescued from the church, after a tip-off by a whistleblower.

Two clerics of the church, David Anifowoshe and Peter Josiah, who were arrested by the police, are still being held in police custody as investigation continues.

The commissioner said the government was concerned with the level of false teachings that the arrested religious leaders had been feeding the children.

She wondered why the cleric, who has children that are well educated and graduated from higher institutions, would be preaching against western education.

“They were indoctrinated and some of the parents of the children told us that they left the church when they started seeing some strange things.

“Sadly, the children speak with much confidence that rapture would soon occur and they are on a 7 day camp. They have not even been eating for seven days.

“We asked them, what have they been eating since they were arrested and they claimed they are living on fruits.

“What baffles me as a mother is that these children are already hardened from the interview we conducted with them,” the commissioner added.

She said that the government was considering taking some of the children to rehabilitation homes, because of how “weird” they look and are behaving.

However, the commissioner said that if the state government would rehabilitate them, then they would have to do so through legal means and take custody of the children.

She promised that the government would rehabilitate the children and had begun a contact tracing of the family members of the children by collating their data.

“We also want to have a database of the children through family tracing from the Ministry so that we can get how these children were hypnotised and indoctrinated,” she added.