Authorities attempting to locate Frankline Ndifor had to reportedly use force to enter his residence because his followers, who believed he was a prophet, blocked entry while praying for his resurrection.

“This is a pastor that has been laying hands [on the sick] and claiming that he cures COVID-19,” Rigobert Che, one of his followers. “If you, the person that claims that you are curing COVID-19, you are dead, what about the fellow people that were affected by the COVID-19? Now that he is dead, I do not know how the people that he was laying hands on will be healed.” Dr. Gaelle Nnanga said the pastor’s followers called him to the scene, and when he arrived, found Frankline Ndifor in “agony.”

He died less than 10 minutes later. Frankline Ndifor’s family and followers had planned to contest the death ruling and keep the body for his resurrection. The Cameroon Tribune reports that police had to use teargas to disperse the crowd, then forcefully remove the body for a quick burial in line with local procedures for the COVID-19 infection.

Cameroon currently has 3,733 confirmed cases of the coronavirus and 146 deaths, according to data collected by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University.