GANTA, Nimba – In recent years, there have been thousands of bats gathered on the trees of the Ganta Methodist Mission Station compound, causing superstitious residents to become uneasy.

To bring this situation to an end or limit the bats’ presence in the compound, the hospital, in collaboration with the Gompa City Corporation and the Liberia National Police Ganta Detail, arranged for three hunters to dedicate three days to firing in the air to scare the bats.

The exercise was expected to last from Saturday, January 12 to Monday, January 15, 2018. That did not take place, however, as the bats had mysteriously vacated the compound early Saturday morning.

The incident has grabbed the attention of many Ganta residents, with many saying it was a prophecy by a pastor of the Christ United for Soul Evangelistic Ministry in Ganta, Fred Suah. Suah had announced to his congregation that a girl had confessed that the gathering of bats was a ‘conference of demons’ that had chosen Liberia as the host.

Ganta’s Mayor Benjamin S. Dokpa, Sr. spoke with the press after the incident and attempted to dispel the rumors.

“God moves in a mysterious way, and we don’t want to even [attribute] this to any witchcraft activities,” he said. “It is God who thought that he might have seen something, and that’s why he caused those bats to leave from here.”

Although unverified, there has been another rumor that the bats had moved to the compound because they were disturbed by mining activities by ArcelorMittal at the Nimba Mountain Range.

The mayor has promised that if the bats return, the city will proceed with its scheduled firing activities to scare them.

“Once they come back, we are going to fire into the air, and once they are seeing that we are doing that, they will escape,” he said. “But this is just surprising to me after we have run an announcement on air for the past one week.”

Featured photo by Arrington Ballah