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TB Joshua raped, tortured members – BBC investigation
According to the BBC on Monday, no fewer than twenty-five people have provided eyewitness accounts that allegedly involve trauma, physical abuse, sexual assault, and fake miracles that occurred at the hands of Temitope Joshua, also known as TB Joshua, a late Nigerian pastor.
During his lifetime, Joshua, one of the wealthiest and most powerful religious figures in Africa, had the entire world at his disposal.
He lived with many of his followers in the Ikotun neighbourhood of Lagos State, where he founded the 12-story Synagogue Church of All Nations.
Joshua gained fame by performing miracles that "delivered" followers and guests from a variety of illnesses, including HIV/AIDS, cancer, chronic migraines, and blindness.
In the late 1990s and early 2000s, evangelical churches across Europe and Africa were captivated by Joshua's healings, drawing in attention from a wide global audience.
His generosity attracted a lot of followers, but his purported miracles attracted the majority.
According to report, the clergy passed away on Saturday, June 5, 2021, one week shy of becoming 58 years old. He was born in 1963.
It was not disclosed what caused his death.
The clergyman, according to a church statement, served God with his final breath on earth.
Nonetheless, the BBC claimed to have carried out a two-year investigation involving more than 15 BBC journalists spread over three continents in partnership with the global media outlet Open Democracy.
According to the report, former insiders calculated that Joshua earned tens of millions of dollars from fundraising, stadium appearances overseas, and pilgrimages.
Allegations of physical abuse, solitary confinement, sexual assault, and fake miracles were the main focus of the investigation.
"More than 25 eyewitnesses and suspected victims, with the most recent accounts from 2019, have described what it was like inside Joshua's compound. They come from the UK, Nigeria, Ghana, US, South Africa, and Germany.
According to the report, Joshua abused and sexually assaulted young women for nearly two decades, according to the testimony of numerous survivors. He did this several times a week.
21-year-old British victim Rae described her experience as one of the "disciples," an exclusive group of followers who lived and worked with Joshua inside his compound.
In 2002, she was enrolled in a Brighton, UK, university to study graphic design.
Rae's close friend Carla recalled how the two of them had gone to Nigeria to look for a mysterious man who seemed to be able to heal people with his hands. He wore white robes and was a Christian pastor with a black beard. He went by TB Joshua. His devotees referred to him as "The Prophet."
For just one week, Rae and Carla intended to visit his church, the SCOAN. But Rae did not return home. She had relocated to Joshua's grounds.
Carla says, her eyes welling with tears, "I left her there." I will never, ever be able to forgive myself for it.
Carla said, "It was like she died to me, but I couldn't grieve her."
According to her account, Rae declared that she was gay and believed that receiving Joshua's healing would end her problem.
She described herself as saying, "I was gay and I didn't want to be." "Perhaps this is the solution to my issues, I reasoned. Perhaps this man can set me straight. For example, I won't be gay if he prays for me.
Rae narrated what happened to her when she entered the synagogue, stating, "I had a really involuntary reaction." Tears were streaming down my face.
At that point, she claimed, Joshua singled her out to become a "disciple."
She believed the clergyman would "cure" her sexuality and teach her under his guidance, but her belief was never realised.
"And in hell, horrible things happen," the speaker continued, "we all thought we were in heaven, but we were in hell."
Rae described her two years of psychological trauma, during which she was not allowed to leave the compound and no one inside was allowed to speak to her. She also revealed that she had made five attempts at suicide.
Several of the victims claimed that during their stay in the compound, it occurred frequently—up to two or four times per week. Some spoke of being raped violently and being left bleeding or having trouble breathing.
Since the other disciples were all urged to report on one another, many of them dared not tell the other disciples what was happening to them because they thought they were the only ones being attacked.
It's "very difficult to understand how somebody can go through psychological abuse to," Rae observed. 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.
Rae left Joshua's compound after 12 years, saying, "He made a huge mistake, he lost control of me," and that she was unaware that her family and friends had been emailing her; "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 recollected the horrific trauma and its effects on her. Rae later returned to England.
She expressed her disappointment that Joshua died without waiting to be held accountable for the crimes he had committed.
It has been extremely frustrating that TB Joshua passed away before being held accountable for the crimes he committed. As his victims, it's only served to heighten our collective sense of egregious injustice," she said.
The BBC said that it shared the investigation's allegations with SCOAN. They did not reply, but they refuted earlier accusations made against Joshua.
"It is not uncommon to make baseless accusations against Prophet TB Joshua... The church claimed that none of the accusations had ever been verified.
According to the BBC, former adherents have attempted to report abuse in the past, but claim that SCOAN has silenced or discredited them; two even reported physical assault.
The report stated that a security guard fired above the heads of the crew when they refused to turn over their footage while the BBC's Africa Eye was filming outside the church.
Bisola, a Nigerian and "disciple," claimed that she had been sexually assaulted by the deceased minister.
After spending 14 years within the compound, Bisola said she was asked, under threat of violence, to bring virgin girls into the fold of disciples.
"TB Joshua requested that I find virgins for him. In order for him to disvirgin them and bring them into the fold of his disciples, she disclosed.
Bisola told the BBC that one of Joshua's main strategies was courting Westerners.
She claimed, "He marketed his brand by using the white people."
According to the report, a significant number of young individuals who travelled abroad to see Joshua in the early 2000s did not have their tickets paid for.
Additionally, Church organisations in England raised money to send pilgrims to Lagos to see these miracles; Joshua personally donated Scoan money, senior former said insiders in the church.
Joshua later started charging pilgrims hefty fees to enter and remain in the church after it had gained significant traction.
Within weeks of becoming a disciple, Jessica Kaimu, a broadcast journalist in Namibia, claimed that she was raped by Joshua in his penthouse bathroom when she was just 17 years old.
Saying, "I was screaming and he was whispering in my ear that I should stop acting like a baby," she claimed that Joshua was unaffected by her screams. I was unable to cry since I was so traumatised.
Kaimu reported that during her five years as a disciple, she experienced sexual abuse.
It happened to a woman who yearned for anonymity twice before she turned fifteen.
"I was violated by him, and it hurt so bad. Words are not enough properly express it. It scarred me for life,” she said.
The task of removing the tangible proof of this abuse was assigned to four of Joshua's male personal attendants, according to the report.
Journalist Solomon Ashoms, who specialises in African religion, remarked, "We'd never... seen anything like that before," adding, "The mysteries that he had, the secrets that he carried, [were] what people followed."
Another victim, Victoria (not real name), claimed to have lived in the compound for more than five years and mentioned that Joshua frequently personally selected some victims from the church membership.
Victoria described her ordeal, saying that she was singled out while attending Sunday school at the church and that a few months later, after her parents had given her over to Joshua, she was sexually assaulted in his private quarters.
Later on, she was chosen to be a resident disciple.
According to Victoria, Joshua gave orders to some of his most reliable followers in Nigeria to assist in identifying new victims and to identify the group known as the "fishing department."
Sihle, a former disciple from South Africa, revealed that she had three forced abortions while attending the church.
"You are given a concoction to drink and you get sick," stated Sihle. Alternatively, they insert these metal bits into your vagina and take whatever is inside. Furthermore, you have no idea if they are unintentionally removing your womb.