Mozambique: Alleged 'Naparamas' beat and strip nurse in Namuno - Notícias report
File photo: Folha de Maputo
The Mozambican police on Thursday morning rescued a group of 17 children who were held captive at the home of a self-styled “prophet”, in the central city of Chimoio.
The police arrested the owner of the house, Luis Gouveia Inroga, who claimed that he had “recruited” the children, aged between nine and 16 years, in November so that they could learn the Bible.
They were told to disobey their parents, and not to go to school. They had to keep their distance from “worldly” things such as education and television programmes, which Inroga regarded as “satanic”.
He claimed that, when he is possessed by the divine spirit, he is able to write in Arabic, but after the spirit has left him, he is unable to read what he had written
Speaking to reporters after his arrest, Inroga said “I don’t have a church. I merely received a divine call, and I began to teach, to take people out of sin, because sinners will not inherit the Kingdom of God”.
“I was called by God to follow his path”, he continued. “I was also told by a spirit to recruit some brothers, in this case children. I obtained some whom I’m teaching at home. Sometimes we climb the mountain to pray”.
For Inroga, the children were in danger in the homes of their parents, where “they would watch television programmes, and might be turned away from the truth”.
He denied telling his child followers not to bid farewell to their parents. “What I thought was that the children informed their parents of this project and they were in agreement”.
The children had been successfully brainwashed, for they told reporters that they too are now prophets. They claim to have mastered the Bible, and say that, when “possessed by the spirit of God”, they can “speak in tongues” – languages they have never learnt and cannot recall once the “spirit of God” has left them.
The parents say that their children are now acting abnormally, and will no longer obey parental instructions. One of the mothers, Flora Moreira, said her son has been in Inroga’s “church” for two months, and now has become disobedient and insults her constantly.
Apparently she had initially consented for her son to be “recruited” by Inroga, for she said she was very disappointed in him. “He teaches that going to school is a sin”, she said. “He teaches them not to accept instructions from their parents. This pastor never showed any interest in knowing the parents. We believe that he wanted to take our children for other purposes”.
The press officer at the Manica Provincial Police Command, Mateus Mindu, said the police acted after receiving a denunciation about an unknown “pastor” who was recruiting children into his house.
“This is the crime of private imprisonment”, said Mindu. “He’s been with the children from November until now. We don’t know how he fed them”. A case file is being drawn up and will be sent to the Public Prosecutor for the next steps, he added.
Mindu took the opportunity to urge parents and guardians to exercise greater vigilance and denounce any suspicious behaviour, in order to guarantee public order and security.
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