We had plans to put TB Joshua on trial but he fled – Soyinka defends BBC

Following the BBC’s critical report about the late Pastor Temitope Balogun Joshua, often known as TB Joshua, Nobel Laureate Prof. Wole Soyinka has urged Nigerians to shut up.

On June 5, 2021, Joshua, the founder of Synagogue Church of All Nations (SCOAN), died.

The atrocities and sexual crimes committed by the cleric were the subject of a three-part investigative documentary that the BBC released in January 2024.

The BBC interviewed at least thirty former SCOAN workers and members as part of the investigation.

On January 8, the documentary’s first segment was made available.

The now-deceased SCOAN founder’s covert lifestyle was exposed in the three-part documentary. It told graphic tales of rape, abuse, deception, and staged healings. Sources informed the BBC that although the church was aware of all the accusations, it never looked into them. They said that more than 20 years had passed during the sexual offense.

A segment of the documentary exposed how SCOAN hid the truth from its members over the 2014 collapse of one of the church’s guesthouses. A brief film of the building with what appeared to be an aircraft flying over it was presented to members on Emmanuel TV on many occasions.

One of the sources who lost her daughter in the collapsed building told the BBC, “On television, they were showing us the building had been bombed.”

SCOAN is situated in Lagos State’s Ikotun-Egbe area. Once a small evangelical church in the area, it has grown to be a multimillion-dollar church with members from all over the world.

Emmanuel, one of the young men who worked for TB Joshua, told the BBC that the members were misled into believing the story about the aircraft. Emmanuel said there was a structural defect in the church.

The British disciple Rae confirmed that the building’s foundation was too small for the floors placed upon it. She further mentioned that, despite the advice of experts, Joshua insisted on raising the building.

In the documentary, another SCOAN employee, Emmanuel stated, “They told us don’t tell what you know. They knew something was wrong with the building, but they were managing it.”

At the PUNCH 50th Anniversary Public Lecture on Recovering the Narrative, the guest speaker Soyinka claimed he spoke with the then-Governor of Lagos about TB Joshua since the latter intended to prosecute the cleric.

He said, “Considering religion-saturated environment here, perhaps the nearest expression for description is that creativity is akin to the phenomenon of spiritual possession. Oh! that brings me to the recent hullabaloo occasioned by a BBC documentary on the religious enterprise rampaging across our dear nation.”

“I took some time to study that man, TB Joshua while he was still alive.

“I discussed him with the then-Governor of Lagos, who had plans to tell them to put him on trial. But then he took off and I think he ended up in Latin America, which is beginning to rival Nigeria for miracles and wonders, and packed theatre on stage, on television for people in possession and being cursed, and vomiting snakes and…all other kinds of illicit aspects of Nigerian spirituality. Leave BBC alone,” he said.

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