Dozens of ex-Synagogue Church of all Nations members – five
British – allege atrocities, including rape and forced abortions, by Nigeria’s
late TB Joshua.
The allegations of abuse in a secretive Lagos compound span
almost 20 years.
The Synagogue Church of All Nations did not respond to the
allegations but said previous claims have been unfounded.
TB Joshua, who died in 2021, was a charismatic and hugely
successful preacher and televangelist who had an immense global following.
The BBC’s findings over a two-year investigation include:
Dozens of eyewitness
accounts of physical violence or torture carried out by Joshua, including
instances of child abuse and people being whipped and chained
Numerous women who say they were sexually assaulted by
Joshua, with a number claiming they were repeatedly raped for years inside the
compound
Multiple allegations of forced abortions inside the church
following the alleged rapes by Joshua, including one woman who says she had
five terminations
Multiple first-hand accounts detailing how Joshua faked his
“miracle healings”, which were broadcast to millions of people around the world
One of the victims, a British woman, called Rae, was 21
years old when she abandoned her degree at Brighton University in 2002 and was
recruited into the church. She spent the next 12 years as one of Joshua’s
so-called “disciples” inside his maze-like concrete compound in Lagos.
“We all thought we were in heaven, but we were in hell, and
in hell terrible things happen,” she told the BBC.
Rae says she was sexually assaulted by Joshua and subjected
to a form of solitary confinement for two years. The abuse was so severe, she
says she attempted suicide multiple times inside the compound.
The Synagogue Church of All Nations [Scoan] has a global
following, operating a Christian TV channel called Emmanuel TV and social media
networks with millions of viewers. Throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, tens
of thousands of pilgrims from Europe, the Americas, South East Asia and Africa
travelled to the church in Nigeria to witness Joshua performing “healing
miracles”. At least 150 visitors lived with him as disciples inside his
compound in Lagos, sometimes for decades.
Rae spent 12 years in Joshua’s compound
More than 25 former “disciples” spoke to the BBC – from the
UK, Nigeria, US, South Africa, Ghana, Namibia and Germany – giving powerful
corroborating testimony about their experiences within the church, with the
most recent experiences in 2019. Many victims were in their teens when they
first joined. In some of the British cases, their transport to Lagos was paid
for by Joshua, in co-ordination with other UK churches.
Rae and multiple other interviewees compared their
experiences to being in a cult.
Jessica Kaimu, from Namibia, says her ordeal lasted more
than five years. She says she was 17 when Joshua first raped her, and that
subsequent instances of rape by TB Joshua led to her having five forced
abortions while there.
“These were backdoor type… medical treatments that we were
going through… it could have killed us,” she told the BBC.
Other interviewees say they were stripped and beaten with
electrical cables and horse whips, and routinely denied sleep.
On his death in June 2021, TB Joshua was hailed as one of
the most influential pastors in African history. Rising from poverty, he built
an evangelical empire that counted dozens of political leaders, celebrities and
international footballers among his associates.
He did, however, attract some controversy during his
lifetime when a guesthouse for church pilgrims collapsed in 2014, killing at
least 116 people.
The BBC’s investigation, which was carried out with
international media platform Open Democracy, is the first time multiple former
church insiders have come forward to speak on the record. They say they’ve
spent years trying to raise the alarm, but have effectively been silenced.
A number of our witnesses in Nigeria claim they were
physically attacked, and in one case shot at, after previously speaking out
against the abuse and posting videos containing allegations on YouTube.
A BBC crew that attempted to record footage of the church’s
Lagos compound from a public street in March 2022 was also fired at by the
church’s security, and was detained for a number of hours.
The BBC contacted Scoan with the allegations in our
investigation. It did not respond to them, but denied previous claims against
TB Joshua.
“Making unfounded allegations against Prophet TB Joshua is
not a new occurrence… None of the allegations was ever substantiated,” it
wrote. BBC
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