No fewer than 25 persons have given eyewitness accounts
bordering on allegations of s#xual assault, physical abuse, faked miracles and
trauma -allegedly suffered in the hands of a late Nigerian pastor, Temitope
Joshua, aka TB Joshua, BBC reports Monday.
Joshua, one of Africa’s most influential religious leaders
and richest pastors, had the world at his feet during his lifetime.
He was the founder of the Synagogue Church of All Nations, a
12-storey building, situated in the Ikotun area of Lagos State, where he lived alongside many of
his followers.
Joshua was popular for his miracles – which ‘delivered’
people – followers and visitors – of any ailment, ranging from cancer and
HIV/AIDS to chronic migraines and blindness.
The healings performed by Joshua caught the attention of a
far-reaching global audience among evangelical churches throughout Europe and
Africa in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
Many of his followers were drawn by his philanthropy, but
most came for his so-called miracles.
The clergy, born in 1963, died on
Saturday, June 5, 2021, a week before his 58th birthday.
The cause of his death was not revealed.
However, a statement by the church said the clergyman spent
his last moment on earth in the service of God.
The report stated that former insiders estimated that Joshua
made tens of millions of dollars from pilgrims and other money streams –
fundraising, video sales, and stadium appearances abroad.
The investigation centered around allegations of sexual
assault, physical abuse, solitary confinement, and fake miracles, amongst
others.
“More than 25 eyewitnesses and alleged victims, from the UK,
Nigeria, Ghana, US, South Africa and Germany, have provided accounts of what it
was like inside Joshua’s compound, with the most recent experiences in 2019.
“Testimony from dozens of survivors suggests Joshua was abusing
and raping young women from around the world several times a week for nearly 20
years.” the report noted.
One of the victims who was part of the ‘disciples,’ an elite
group of followers who served and lived with Joshua inside his compound;
21-year-old female Briton, Rae, gave a recount of her experience.
She was, at that time, studying graphic design at a
university in Brighton, UK, in 2002.
A close friend of Rae, Carla, recalled how they both
travelled to Nigeria in search of a mysterious man who could seemingly heal
people with his hands. He was a Christian pastor, with a black beard, in white
robes. His name was TB Joshua. His followers called him “The Prophet.”
Rae and Carla planned to visit his church, the SCOAN, for
just one week. But Rae never came home. She had moved into Joshua’s compound.
“I left her there,” says Carla, tears flowing freely. “Never
will I ever forgive myself for that.
“For me, it was like she died, but I couldn’t grieve her,”
Carla revealed.
Rae, in her account, stated that she was gay and thought
being healed by Joshua would solve her predicament.
She narrated, “I was gay and I didn’t want to be,” she says.
“I thought: ‘Well, maybe this is the answer to my problems. Maybe this man can
straighten me out. Like if he prays for me, I won’t be gay anymore.'”
Rae described the moment she stepped foot into the
Synagogue, saying, “I had a really involuntary reaction. I just broke down in
floods of tears.”
She stated that at that point, Joshua singled her out to
become a “disciple.”
She had thought the clergyman would “cure” her sexuality and
learn under his tutelage, but to her imagination, her thought never
materialised.
“We all thought we were in heaven, but we were in hell,”
adding, “And in hell terrible things happen.”
Rae narrated how she went through psychological trauma for
two years, during which she was forbidden from leaving the compound, and nobody
inside was allowed to talk to her., adding that she attempted to commit suicide
five times.
Many of the victims said it happened frequently – as much as two to four times a week – for the duration of their time in the compound. Some described violent rapes which left them struggling to breathe or bleeding.
Many believed they were the only ones being assaulted and
did not dare share what was happening to them with the other disciples, as they
were all encouraged to report on each other.
Rae noted that it’s “extremely difficult to understand how
somebody can go through psychological abuse to the extent that they lose their
critical thinking.”
“I was basically in total isolation… I had a complete
breakdown. I tried to commit suicide five times,” she said.
After spending 12 years inside Joshua’s compound, Rae
returned to England.
She had slipped away from the disciples while travelling
with the church on a tour to Mexico, stating, “He made a huge mistake, he lost
control of me.”
Rae stated that it was only after she left that she realised
that her family and friends had been sending her emails. She had never received
them.
“On the outside, I look normal, but I’m not. This story is
like a horror story. It’s like something you watch in fiction, but it’s true,”
Rae said while she recalled the tragic trauma and the impacts it’s had on her.
She expressed her disappointment that Joshua didn’t wait to
face the consequences of the atrocities he had committed before his death.
“TB Joshua dying before facing justice for the atrocities he
committed, has been deeply frustrating. It’s only added to the gross sense of
injustice felt by all of us as his victims,” she noted.
BBC stated that it contacted SCOAN with the allegations in
the investigation. They did not respond to them but denied previous claims
against Joshua.
“Making unfounded allegations against Prophet TB Joshua is
not a new occurrence… None of the allegations was ever substantiated,” the
church stated.
The BBC stated that former followers have previously tried
to speak out about abuse, but say they had been silenced or discredited by
SCOAN, while two said they were physically assaulted.
When the BBC’s Africa Eye was filming outside the church, a
security guard shot above the heads of the crew after they refused to hand over
their material, the report noted.
A Nigerian, Bisola, who was also a ‘disciple,’ stated that
she was raped multiple times by the late clergyman.
Bisola, who spent 14 years inside the compound, added that
she was asked to recruit virgin girls into the disciple fold under threats of
violence.
“TB Joshua asked me to recruit virgins for him… So that he
could bring them into the disciple-fold and disvirgin them,” she revealed.
Bisola told the BBC that courting Westerners was a key
tactic employed by Joshua
“He used the white people to market his brand,” she said.
The report stated that many of the young people who left
their home countries to meet Joshua in the early 2000s didn’t pay for their
tickets.
It added that Church groups across England raised funds to
send pilgrims to Lagos to witness these miracles – and Joshua contributed Scoan
money himself, senior former church insiders said.
Later, once the church was well established, Joshua charged
high prices for pilgrims to come and stay.
A broadcast journalist in Namibia, Jessica Kaimu, narrated
that she was raped by Joshua at the age of 17, in the bathroom of his
penthouse, within weeks of her becoming a disciple.
She stated that Joshua wasn’t moved by her screams, saying,
“I was screaming and he was whispering in my ear that I should stop acting like
a baby… I was so traumatised, I couldn’t cry.”
Kaimu noted that she was raped for five years throughout her
stay as a disciple.
A woman who craved anonymity stated that it happened to her
twice before the age of 15.
“It was so painful, he violated me. Words cannot properly
express it. It scarred me for life,” she said.
The report noted that there were accounts by four of
Joshua’s male personal servants who were given the job of clearing up the
physical evidence of this abuse.
“We’d never… seen anything like that before,” said a
journalist who covers African religion, Solomon Ashoms, adding, “The mysteries
that he had, the secrets that he carried, [were] what people followed.”
Another victim, Victoria (not real name), stated that she
spent more than five years in the compound, adding that some victims were often
hand-picked by Joshua from the church congregation.
While recounting her ordeal, Victoria said she was picked
out while attending the church’s Sunday school, and says she was raped in
Joshua’s private quarters a few months later, after her parents entrusted her into
his care.
She was later recruited as a resident disciple.
Victoria said Joshua ordered some of his most trusted
Nigerian disciples to help identify new victims, identifying the group which
was informally known as the “fishing department.”
A former South African disciple, Sihle, narrated that she
had three forced abortions in the church.
Sihle said, “You are given a concoction to drink and you get
sick. Or they put these metal pieces in your vagina and they extract whatever.
And you don’t know whether they’re [accidentally] pulling out your womb.”
The investigative report noted that the disciples served
Joshua’s every need, from massages to helping him dress, and spray his perfume
when he entered the room.
They also placed plastic gloves on his hands so he could eat
his food without touching a crumb.
A man once regarded as Joshua’s number two in the church,
Agomoh Paul, who left after 10 years in the compound, revealed that the whole
miracle thing was scripted.
“That guy [was] a genius. Everything… [he did was] planned
out,” Paul stated.
A major part of this planning was the faking of the
“miracles” said Paul, which he noted he oversaw.
He and other sources say that those “cured” had often been
paid to perform or exaggerate their symptoms before their supposed healing took
place.
In some cases, they say, people had been unknowingly drugged
or given medicine to improve their conditions while at the church, and later
persuaded to give testimony about their recovery. Others were falsely told they
had tested positive for HIV/AIDS and that, thanks to Joshua’s ministrations,
they had now become virus-free.
Paul also noted that Joshua “wanted to control everybody,
everything. What he was really scrambling for [was] the control of people’s
minds.”
The disciples said they were made to work, without pay, for
long hours each day – running all aspects of the megachurch. All say sleep
deprivation was routine, with lights left on in the dormitories at night, the
report stated.
The church, which is still in operation today, is led by his
widow, Evelyn.
In his lifetime, Joshua attracted dozens of politicians and
celebrities to his church.
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