Mob beats up pastor, demolishes church where baby’s heart was allegedly found

RESIDENTS of Abua Street in Calabar, Cross River State, yesterday demolished a new generation church located on the street.

The Nation learnt that they also beat up the pastor in charge of the church thoroughly before he was whisked away to safety,.
A source in the area who preferred anonymity said: “Their reason for beating up the pastor was because the church was a branch of another one located along Atamunu Street, which was allegedly discovered to be involved in kidnapping children for rituals purposes.”

The General Overseer of the church, who presided over the Atamunu branch had been arrested along with some other people, over the alleged murder of a one year old baby, who was believed to have been used for rituals. The Atamunu church was ransacked on Thursday after which a baby’s heart among other fetish items were recovered.
When The Nation visited the Abua Street branch yesterday, residents were seen demolishing the building and recovering items including used sanitary pads, bras, panties and other female accessories, as well as many pictures of young men.
The angry mob later burnt every item recovered from the church.

One of them, who gave his name as David, expressed concern over the proliferation of such churches.
“These are just herbalist homes disguised as churches. If they put signpost as herbalists, no one will go, but they make it look like a church. I believe that this one was particularly patronised by women, who are given assignments, to look for husbands. You can tell from the many pictures of young men discovered here.

“Most of those young men have no idea that their pictures have been taken somewhere and tied down here. Who knows if they have told any of them to use the soaked pads to cook for men they wanted to marry? A lot of bizarre things keep happening and I wish something would be done to check the activities of these churches.”

Some residents were seen carrying woods, roofing sheets and other items recovered from the demolished building for their domestic use.