A sad and shocking event happened in Bayelsa State where a 42-year-old man named Samuel Otasi gave poison to his three sons. This happened after a church prophecy claimed the boys were wizards.

According to police from the Igbogini Division, Otasi, with help from a relative, made his sons—aged 10, 12, and 14—drink Sniper, a harmful insecticide. The action was reportedly based on a prophecy by one George Odugo during a church service. Odugo claimed that the children had been bewitched by their mother and were sent to ruin their father’s life.

TVC News reports that one of the boys somehow survived and escaped from the bush where they had been tied up and forced to drink the poison. He later told how his father and uncle made them drink it. There were marks from ropes on their bodies, showing they had been tied up.

Doctors who treated the surviving boy said he was brought in unconscious and in very bad shape. After he regained his strength, he told the police that his two brothers were still in the bush. Sadly, by the time officers got there, the other two boys had already passed away.

When the Commissioner of Police visited the area, journalists were shown wooden crates used to carry the bodies out of the forest where they were found.

Samuel Otasi is now in police custody and will be taken to court for this heartbreaking crime. His mother, who lost two grandsons and now has her son behind bars, wept at the police station.

The police have warned parents to never involve children in personal or spiritual problems between couples. They stressed that innocent children should never suffer because of false prophecies or family troubles.