Anas Reacts To T.B. Joshua’s Exposure

Renowned Investigative journalist, Anas Aremeyaw Anas, has called for a shift in perspective regarding the controversies surrounding the late T.B. Joshua.

He argues that while religious matters are important, the human rights abuse committed by the late pastor should not be overlooked.

He made this comment after the BBC released a documentary highlighting the abuse within the church Synagogue Church of All Nations (SCOAN) led by T.B Joshua.

The BBC documentary, which has received significant attention and sparked debate, provides details of sexual abuse, rape allegations, and alleged manipulation of miracles within the Synagogue Church of All Nations (SCOAN).

“I think that the major takeaway from this documentary is the level of abuse we’ve all seen in the film. And I don’t want us to look at this with the lenses of religion, it is a pure human right abuse story which all of us as journalists have been doing and where you have the situation where girls have been raped, sexually abused and manipulations of miracles and others, its about time we say no to these things, we stand firm and say it as it is to let people know what the real story is,” he said.

In response to questions about the documentary’s publication coming after TB Joshua’s death, Anas emphasized the need to hold people accountable for suspected wrongdoing even after death.

Anas drew comparisons to historical characters such as Hitler, emphasizing the significance of acknowledging and addressing individuals’ acts, regardless of their fate.

“I don’t think this is an attack on the church, I have emphasized that we are not here to talk about religion, we are here to talk about human right abuses. We have done stories on human rights abuses, and this is not any different from the stories we do. I think that if there is something wrong, we should have the courage as journalists to be able to tell it as it is.

“The death of a person does not mean that the issue is dead. There are equally important and many poor people who have suffered as a result of these atrocities. We talk about Hitler today, he is dead but we still talk about the atrocities and the human rights abuses he meted out to people,” he added.

Background

TB Joshua: Megachurch leader raped and tortured worshippers, BBC finds
Evidence of widespread abuse and torture by the founder of one of the world’s biggest Christian evangelical churches has been uncovered by the BBC.

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.

BBC

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