No fewer than 25 persons have given eyewitness accounts bordering on allegations of sexual 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.
Newsmen report that the clergy, born in 1963, died on Saturday, June 5, 2021, a week before his 58th birthday.
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.
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 scared 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.”
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.
Punch/Mary Ogboye
