Evidence of widespread abuse and torture committed by the founder of one of the world's largest evangelical Christian churches has come to light thanks to a BBC investigation.
Dozens of former members of the Synagogue Church of All Nations, including five Britons, have claimed that atrocities, including rape and forced abortions, were carried out by the church's late leader TB Joshua (Temitope Balogun Joshua) in Nigeria.
Allegations of the abuse, which occurred in a secret complex in Lagos (the most populous city and financial center of the African country), date back almost 20 years.
The Synagogue Church of All Nations did not respond to the accusations, but said the claims were unfounded.
TB Joshua, who died in 2021, was a charismatic preacher and televangelist who had an immense fan base around the world.
After a two-year investigation, the BBC discovered:
- Dozens of eyewitness accounts of physical violence or torture carried out by Joshua, including cases of child abuse and people whipped and chained.
- Numerous women said they were sexually assaulted by Joshua, and several claimed they were repeatedly raped for years inside the complex.
- Multiple accusations of forced abortions inside the church following Joshua's alleged rapes, including a woman who claims to have had five abortions.
- Multiple firsthand accounts detailing how Joshua He faked his “miraculous cures”which were transmitted to millions of people around the world.
hell on earth
One of the victims, a British woman named Rae, was 21 years old when she abandoned her studies at the University of Brighton (in the south of England) in 2002 and was recruited by the church. She spent the next 12 years as one of Joshua's so-called “disciples” inside his labyrinth-like concrete compound in Lagos.
“We all thought we were in heaven, but we were in hell, and terrible things happen in hell,” he told the BBC.
Rae alleged that Joshua sexually assaulted her and subjected her to a form of solitary confinement for two years. The abuse was so severe that, according to her, she attempted suicide several times inside the facility.
The Synagogue Church of All Nations (Scoan) has followers around the world and operates a Christian television channel called Emmanuel TV and social media with millions of followers.
Throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, tens of thousands of pilgrims from Europe, America, Southeast Asia and Africa traveled to Nigeria to witness Joshua performing “healing miracles.” At least 150 visitors lived with him as disciples within his compound in Lagos, sometimes for decades.
More than 25 former “disciples” (from the United Kingdom, Nigeria, United States, South Africa, Ghana, Namibia and Germany) spoke to the BBC and gave powerful testimonies of their experiences within the church.
a sect
Many of the victims were teenagers when they joined the church. For some of the British, Joshua paid for their transfer to Lagos, in coordination with other churches in the United Kingdom.
Rae and many other interviewees compared their experiences to being in a cult.
Jessica Kaimu, from Namibia, said her ordeal lasted more than five years. She asserted that when she was 17 years old, Joshua raped her for the first time, and that subsequent situations led her to have five forced abortions while she was there.
“These medical treatments we were going through could have killed us,” he admitted to the BBC.
Other interviewees described being stripped naked, beaten with electric cables and horse whips, and systematically denied sleep.
Upon his death in June 2021, TB Joshua was hailed as one of the most influential pastors in African history. Upon emerging from poverty, the preacher built an evangelical empire that counted dozens of political leaders, celebrities and international soccer players among his associates.
However, his work was controversial. In 2014 she was at the center of controversy when a church pilgrim house collapsed, killing at least 116 people.
Silenced at any cost
The BBC investigation, which was carried out with the international media platform openDemocracy, is the first to get several former members of the church to speak about their experiences.
Those interviewed said they spent years trying to raise the alarm and were silenced.
Several of the witnesses in Nigeria said they were physically assaulted, and in one case shot, after making complaints and posting videos containing allegations of the abuse on YouTube.
A BBC crew who attempted to record footage of the church compound in Lagos from a street in March 2022 was also shot at by church security and detained for several hours.
The BBC contacted church leaders to address the allegations against Joshua, but the requests were ignored and only refuted earlier allegations.
“Making unfounded accusations against Prophet TB Joshua is not something new… None of the accusations were substantiated,” they responded from Scoan.
on deaf ears
Four of the British citizens who spoke to the BBC said they reported the abuse to UK authorities after escaping from the church and complained that they took no action.
In March 2010, a British man and his wife emailed eyewitness accounts of their ordeal and video evidence (including recordings of being held at gunpoint by men who described themselves as police officers and also members of the Scoan ) to the British High Commission in Nigeria, after fleeing the church.
In his email, the man said his wife had been repeatedly raped by Joshua. He warned the commission that other Britons were still inside the complex facing atrocities.
He also assured that no action was taken.
The UK Foreign Office did not respond to these claims, but told the BBC that it takes all reports of crimes against British citizens abroad, including sexual assault and violence, very seriously.
The Scoan continues to prosper today, under the leadership of Joshua's widow, Evelyn. In July 2023, the woman led a tour of Spain.
Anneka, who left Derby, UK, to join Scoan at the age of 17, told the BBC she believes there are many other victims who have not yet spoken out. Likewise, she said that she hoped that more steps would be taken to uncover Joshua's misdeeds.
“I think the Synagogue Church of All Nations needs a thorough investigation into why this man was able to act for so long the way he did,” he said.
Additional reporting by Maggie Andresen, Yemisi Adegoke and Ines Ward
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BBC-NEWS-SRC: https://www.bbc.com/mundo/articles/ck50x93w740o, IMPORTING DATE: 2024-01-08 17:07:04
Charlie Northcott and Helen Spooner
BBC News, Africa Eye
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