 |
| Inside Synagogue Church of all Nations in Lagos, founded by TB Joshua (Image: BBC News) |
TB Joshua, a charismatic Nigerian leader of one of the world's most prominent evangelical churches, secretly committed sexual crimes on a mass scale, a BBC investigation spanning three continents has found. 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. Carla knew where Rae had gone. A few weeks previously, she and Rae had travelled to Nigeria together in search of a mysterious man who could seemingly heal people with his hands.
He was a Christian pastor with a black beard and white robes. His name was TB Joshua. His followers called him "The Prophet." Rae and Carla planned to visit his church, the Synagogue Church of All Nations, for just one week.
She had moved into Joshua's compound. "I left her there," says Carla, tears flowing freely. The church looms like a gothic temple over the Ikotun neighbourhood in Lagos, Africa's largest city. Joshua designed all 12 storeys of the compound adjoining it, where he lived alongside many of his followers.
Numerous women say they were sexually assaulted by Joshua, with a number claiming they were repeatedly raped behind closed doors. Some say they were forced to have abortions after becoming pregnant. When Rae talks about her years in Lagos, her lips tighten. She spent 12 years inside Joshua's compound.
They gathered archive video recordings, documents, and hundreds of hours of interviews to corroborate Rae's testimony and uncover further harrowing stories. More than 25 eyewitnesses and alleged victims from the UK, Nigeria, Ghana, the US, South Africa, and Germany have provided accounts of what it was like inside Joshua's compound, with the most recent experiences in 2019. 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. Many of our interviewees have waived their legal right to anonymity, in most cases asking just their surnames be omitted.
The man at the heart of Scoan is regarded as one of the most influential pastors in African history. On the day of his funeral, Lagos ground to a halt as mourning crowds packed the streets. Some 50,000 people would attend Joshua's services every week, and the church became a top site for foreign visitors to Nigeria. His global television and social media empire was among the most successful Christian networks globally, with millions of viewers spanning Europe, the Americas, South East Asia, and Africa.
The church is still famous today, led by his widow Evelyn and a new team of disciples. An interview with Nelson Mandela's daughter in 2013 shows a portrait of Joshua sitting on the former president of South Africa's desk. In his lifetime, Joshua attracted dozens of politicians and celebrities to his church, including sporting legends such as Chelsea FC striker Didier Drogba and at least nine African presidents. Many of his followers were drawn by his philanthropy, but most came for his so-called miracles.
Joshua systematically filmed spectacular «healings» throughout his career. After Joshua prayed for them, individuals on camera testified to being cured of ailments ranging from cancer and HIV/Aids to chronic migraines and blindness. Many of Joshua's videos show men with severely infected genitals, which burst open and then miraculously heal when he raises his arm in prayer. Others show women struggling to give birth, who instantaneously deliver their children when Joshua approaches.
Videotapes of Joshua's healings circulated among evangelical churches throughout Europe and Africa in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Rae, who had grown up with conservative Christian values, was inspired to travel to Lagos after watching these videos shown to her by a South African acquaintance. Another British woman, Anneka, from Derby, in the Midlands, says the videos also entranced her. She, too, went on to travel to Nigeria.
Neither Rae nor Anneka nor many young people who left their home countries to meet Joshua in the early 2000s paid for their tickets. 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 say. Bisola, a Nigerian who spent 14 years inside the compound, says courting Westerners was a key tactic. He rose from poverty to become one of Africa's wealthiest pastors.
"That guy a genius," says Agomoh Paul, once regarded as Joshua's number two in the church, who left after ten years in the compound. 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 provide 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. When Rae landed in the seething heat of Lagos, she saw miracles too.
Dozens of people came and testified to having been healed of severe illnesses. Joshua singled her out to become a "disciple" - an elite group of followers who served and lived with him inside his compound. Rae thought she was going to study under Joshua to "cure" her sexuality and learn how to heal people. The reality was very different.
Many say it happened frequently - twice to four times a week - for their time in the compound. She says 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 then recruited as a resident disciple. Victoria says Joshua ordered some of his most trusted Nigerian disciples to help identify new victims.
Another disciple involved in similar recruitment was Bisola. She participated because of both "indoctrination" and threats of violence, she says, adding Joshua repeatedly raped her herself. Several women say they were under the age of legal consent - which is 18 in Lagos state - when they were sexually assaulted or raped. This offence can lead to the death penalty in Nigeria.
Jessica says this encounter was repeated again and again throughout the five years she spent as a disciple. Her account mirrors that of other women who spoke to the BBC and also of accounts by four of Joshua's male personal servants who were given the job of clearing up the physical evidence of this abuse. Many of the details of our interviewees' accounts are too graphic to publish. They include multiple first-hand accounts of women being stripped naked and raped with objects - including one woman who says it happened to her twice before the age of 15. "It was so painful, he violated me," the woman, who asked to remain anonymous, says.
Sihle wept throughout her interview, as did Jessica, who says she was given five forced abortions. Bisola says she witnessed "dozens" of abortions during her 14 years inside the church. The disciples served Joshua's every need. There was no cognitive clarity at all... The reality was skewed completely.
Joshua restricted disciples' access to phones and email accounts, our interviewees say. The disciples say they were made to work, without pay, for long hours each day - running all aspects of the megachurch. Anneka says they never had more than four hours of sleep at a time. If anyone were caught napping without permission or contravening any other of Joshua's rules, they would be punished.
Nineteen former disciples described witnessing violent attacks or torture within the compound, carried out by Joshua or on his orders. Other disciples told about being stripped and whipped with electrical cables and a horsewhip known as a koboko. Among those allegedly targeted in this way were trainee disciples as young as seven. The compound in Lagos had 12-foot-high walls and armed guards.
This story is republished from BBC News. Click here to read the original article.
