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TB Joshua: BBC Report Lists Six Mind-blowing Ways Late Church Leader Faked Miracles

Published

4 months ago

January 14, 2024

Editor

A BBC Africa Eye report has insisted that the late Nigerian televangelist, TB Joshua faked miracles within his Synagogue Church of All Nations.

BBC in the report stated that it had uncovered a web of deceptive practices allegedly employed by the late Nigerian televangelist to fabricate miracles and listed six ways the late church leader allegedly faked miracles

It noted that the investigation, which draws insights from more than 25 insiders across various countries, sheds light on a series of deceptive tactics employed within SCOAN.

The investigation, which was published on BBC Eye Website on Sunday, alleged that Joshua, who passed away in 2021 at the age of 57, was a fraud.

It details six ways through which TB Joshua allegedly deceived worshippers, noting that these discoveries came from those who worked with the late church leader.

In 2004, Nigeria’s broadcast regulator prohibited the airing of pastors’ supposed miracles on live terrestrial TV, leading Joshua to launch Emmanuel TV on satellite and later online.

His global television and social media network became one of the world’s most successful Christian platforms, broadcasting to millions across Europe, the Americas, South East Asia, and Africa. His YouTube channel garnered hundreds of millions of views.

Below are the six ways listed by the BBC Africa Eye in its report:

“1: The emergency department: An exclusive section of the church, named the “emergency department”, was responsible for making the so-called miracles look real.

“This is where the sick, who came to be healed, would be screened, and where the team would decide who should be filmed and prayed for by Joshua.

“Agomoh Paul, who supervised the department for 10 years – receiving direct instructions from Joshua, told the BBC that the team was “trained by medical doctors”.

“He is a former disciple – one of an elite group of dedicated followers who lived with the pastor inside the Scoan compound.

“Any cancerous situation, they send them away. Then, people who had normal open wounds that can heal, they bring them in, to present as cancer,” he says.

“Only a select group of trusted disciples were allowed to work in the emergency department. They would write placards for each follower to hold, detailing their made-up or exaggerated ailments. When it was time to meet Joshua, they would stand in line in front of the cameras and be “healed”.

“It was a complicated system. Not all disciples knew what was happening. It was a secret,” Mr Paul says.

“2: Drugs: Every foreign visitor who came to the church to be healed had to fill out a medical report, detailing their illness and the medication they were currently prescribed.

“They would be told to stop taking them, but Joshua would order pharmacists to procure the same medicine.

“Without their knowledge, they would “put those drugs in their fruit drinks,” explains Mr Paul, who said people would be urged to drink the cocktail that had been blessed by Joshua.

“This meant while visitors were residing at SCOAN, they would not become unwell and would believe in the divine healing powers of their pastor.

“In the 1990s when HIV/AIDs had reached epidemic levels across parts of sub-Saharan Africa, Joshua told visitors to stop taking their antiretroviral medication when they returned home.

“I know people died because they didn’t take their medicine, and it’s difficult to live with that,” admits a former disciple, who asked not to be named.

“Tash Ford, now 49, who went to Lagos from the South African city of Johannesburg in 2001 in the hope of having her failing kidney healed, was told to stop taking her drugs.

“It was the promise that… you could supernaturally receive a new kidney,” she told the BBC.

“At the time she had already had two kidney transplants. Ms Ford says the disciples said: “Stop taking your medication and just believe.”

‘She did believe she had been healed. But when she got home, after four weeks of not taking her medicine, she went into renal failure and was admitted to hospital.

“The medics initially managed to save her kidney but eventually it stopped working and she had to have kidney dialysis for more than six years before having a third transplant in 2011.”

“3: Brainwashing: Ms Ford says when she was at Scoan she never had any doubts: “I honestly thought we were seeing miracles. I literally couldn’t believe what I was seeing. I saw someone walk out of a wheelchair.”

“The theatricality seemed to draw everyone in.

“The former disciple told the BBC that after being screened, the chosen followers would be told to “exaggerate their problems so that God can heal you and exaggerate your healing”.

“The people, themselves, are clearly being manipulated,” she says.

“The church had a ready supply of wheelchairs which followers were coaxed to use. They were warned they would not be healed unless they sat in one when they met Joshua.

“We are telling them: ‘If you come out there, and walk with your legs, Papa will not pray for you. You need to shout: “Man of God, help me, I cannot walk,” says Mr Paul.

“Another former disciple, Bisola, who spent 14 years living at Scoan, accompanied Joshua on his National Healing Campaign at the Church of Our Saviour in Singapore in 2006.

“She says she saw people in wheelchairs try to stand up after the pastor told the congregation “he had released faith into the stadium”.

“However, these people had not been screened and she saw them fall down. “I was crying. I was crying for them,” she says.

“The emergency department workers themselves were also being manipulated. They were subjected to horrifying ordeals, including rape, physical violence, and torture, and lived by a strict set of rules – forbidden to sleep for more than a few hours at a time.

“Now they struggle to understand how and why they continued to follow the pastor’s orders.

“TB Joshua told me: ‘Don’t worry, we use this thing to build people’s faith in Christ.’ I wasn’t having in mind that I was actually doing something wrong. I thought I was doing something that would help to build the faith of people in the church,” says Mr Paul.

“For Ms Ford, it has meant she has lost all faith in organised religion: “I wish we had known that it was all a farce, that it wasn’t true. I was manipulated into believing that what the prophet was doing was supernatural, miracles, wonders, signs.”

“4: Bribes: Some disciples allege they were charged with finding people who needed money to pretend to be sick.

“When they performed healing crusades in countries outside Nigeria, they would go to the poorer areas of a city to search for people living in poverty.

“We would say: ‘We need you to just act out this particular scene and we will pay you,’” another former disciple told the BBC.

“We get them into hotels, we get them cleaned up. They come, they do what they do. We give them their money and the rest is history,” she says.

“Before the service, they would tell Joshua which rows they had planted these people, and what clothes they were wearing, so he would know who to perform his supposed miracles on.

“People would be brought in just to pretend that they were healed,” she says.

‘5: Fake medical certificates: The “healing miracles” broadcast to millions regularly included medical reports stating people had been cured of HIV/Aids and diseases like cancer.

“Doctors were interviewed on camera confirming the cures.

“In 2000 Nigerian journalist Adejuwon Soyinka reported that these medical certificates were fake, but Joshua quashed his investigation and it went nowhere.

“To this day some people believe they were healed, but insiders say it was all a performance on the late preacher’s part.

“The whole thing is stage-managed and faked. It’s faked,” says Mr Paul, describing Joshua as an “evil genius”.

“There was nothing that took place in the compound that Joshua did not know about”, he explains.

“TB Joshua was the one who masterminded the whole manipulation,” he says.

“6: Video manipulation: The “miracles” were filmed and then edited to make it look like the supposed healing had happened instantaneously. Before and after footage was spliced together to show his purported miraculous powers, but in reality the films were shot months, or even a year, apart.

“All you see on TV is the before and after, you don’t know the time-space,” says Bisola, who was Scoan’s chief video editor for five years and worked on Emmanuel TV. Like other insiders interviewed by the BBC, she opted to only use her first name.

“What people see… is not real. It is a fraud,” she says about the clips and broadcasts she oversaw.

“I am speaking now as someone who was an insider,” she says.

“Anything they did not want viewers to see was “cut away”. It was all “organised”, she says.

BBC Africa reached out to SCOAN with the allegations but received no response, although the church denied previous claims against Joshua, stating, “Making unfounded allegations against Prophet TB Joshua is not a new occurrence… None of the allegations was ever substantiated.”
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Porn Star Testifies Against Trump At Hush Money Trial

Published

2 days ago

May 8, 2024

Editor

The porn star at the heart of Donald Trump’s historic criminal trial, Stormy Daniels, testified on Tuesday about an alleged 2006 sexual encounter with the former president in a hotel penthouse suite.

Trump, 77, is accused of falsifying business records to reimburse his lawyer, Michael Cohen, for a $130,000 hush money payment to Daniels on the eve of his 2016 election against Hillary Clinton, when the lurid story of marital infidelity could have sunk his campaign.

Prosecutor Susan Hoffinger announced “The people call Stormy Daniels,” as Trump, who is seeking to recapture the White House in November, sat at the defense table in the Manhattan courtroom flanked by his lawyers, AFP reports.

What followed was detailed testimony about the sexual encounter Daniels said she had with Trump – his pajamas, his boxer shorts, the sexual position, that he did not wear a condom – all while the former president, sitting just feet away, stared on in silence, stony-faced.

Trump has denied having sex with Daniels, and his defense team sought, unsuccessfully, to have a mistrial declared.

The extraordinary courtroom face-off comes six months before election day when Trump will try to defeat Democratic President Joe Biden.

Daniels walked prosecutors through her difficult childhood in Louisiana, a stint as a stripper and her eventually joining the adult film industry.

The 45-year-old, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, said she met Trump at a celebrity golf tournament in Lake Tahoe where she was employed as a greeter by X-rated movie company Wicked Entertainment.

Daniels said she was 27 at the time and Trump was “probably older than my father.”

She said a member of Trump’s security detail told her the real estate tycoon wanted to have dinner with her. She was reluctant but agreed after discussing it with her publicist.

When she arrived at the penthouse where Trump was staying he emerged wearing “silk or satin pajamas which I immediately made fun of,” Daniels told the jury.

“I said ‘Does Mr Hefner know you stole his pajamas?’” she said in a reference to the outfit favored by the late Playboy magazine founder Hugh Hefner.

Trump changed clothes and they began talking about adult movies.

“He was very interested in a lot of the business stuff,” Daniels said.

Trump, who was married at the time to his current wife, Melania, suggested Daniels be on his hit reality television show, “The Apprentice,” she said.

Daniels said she went to the bathroom at one point and when she emerged Trump was on the bed in boxer shorts and a T-shirt.

“It startled me,” she said. “The intention was pretty clear.”

“I was not threatened verbally or physically,” Daniels said, although there was an “imbalance of power.”

She said they had brief sex on the bed “in missionary position” and Trump did not wear a condom.

“I felt ashamed I didn’t stop it, didn’t say no,” Daniels said.

Daniels said she met with Trump again on several occasions but cut off contact when it became clear she would not appear on “The Apprentice.”

After Trump announced his candidacy for president, Daniels said her publicist suggested she could sell her story and put her in touch with Keith Davidson, a Hollywood lawyer who testified previously at the trial.

“My motivation wasn’t money, it was to get the story out,” Daniels said.

She said she entered into a non-disclosure agreement in October 2016 on the eve of the presidential election negotiated by Davidson and Cohen for which she was paid $130,000.

“I couldn’t tell my story, he couldn’t tell the story,” she said.

After a lunch break, Trump’s attorney Todd Blanche asked Judge Juan Merchan to declare a mistrial, objecting to some of Daniels’ testimony, particularly her claim that she was threatened in 2011 by a man in a Las Vegas parking garage who allegedly warned her not to talk about Trump.

“It’s extremely prejudicial to insert safety concerns into a trial about business records,” Blanche said.

Merchan denied the motion, saying “I don’t think we have reached a point where a mistrial is in order.”

Trump is under a partial gag order prohibiting him from publicly attacking witnesses, the jury or court staff.

Merchan has already fined him $10,000 for breaching the gag order and warned Trump he may face jail time for future violations.

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Naira Abuse: Trouble Looms As Group Petitions EFCC, Wants Edo APC Candidate Prosecuted

Published

2 days ago

May 8, 2024

Editor

The All Progressives Congress candidate in the September 21 governorship election in Edo State, Monday Okpebholo, is at risk of being sentenced to six- months imprisonment in line with the Central Bank of Nigeria Act of 2007 as a coalition of civil society organisations under the aegis of the Network of Civil Society Organisations in Nigeria accused him of abusing the Nigerian currency, the naira.

The group lodged the complaint with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission against Okpebholo in a petition dated May 2, 2024, and addressed to the chairman of the EFCC.

The petition was signed by the group’s National Coordinator, Victor Kalu, and National Secretary, Ali Abacha.

The coalition claimed the senator is guilty of the offence of naira abuse and mutilation, citing the CBN Act of 2007, which declares such actions as punishable offences.

The coalition said it is “disappointment that prominent individuals, including lawmakers, have violated this provision of the CBN Act.”

Meanwhile, they commended the EFCC for its “swift response in arresting and charging individuals who have been caught on viral videos abusing and defacing the Naira at social events such as the cases of Mr Okuneye Idris Olarewaju, popularly known as Bobrisky, and Mr Pascal Okechukwu, also known as Cubana Chief Priest, who have faced legal consequences for their actions.”

While praising the EFCC for its actions, the coalition demanded that all individuals captured in viral videos abusing the Naira should be promptly arrested and brought to justice, as no one is above the law.

They called on the EFCC and other law enforcement agencies to investigate the “viral video involving Senator Monday Okpebholo, who is seen engaging in Naira abuse and mutilation.”

They added that Okpebholo should be held accountable for his actions as a representative of the people.

They, however, warned that failure to address the viral video involving Okpebholo would result in the coalition taking further actions.

They threatened to mobilise their members, supporters, and democracy advocates for a peaceful protest against the EFCC, citing selective action and bias if the EFCC failed to address the viral video involving Okpebholo.

In his response, the senator refuted the allegation, saying it was false.

Okpebholo, in a statement issued in Abuja on Tuesday, described the allegation as a hatchet job targeted at smearing his image ahead of the September governorship election.

He blamed his detractors and the opposition camp as being the brain behind the campaign of calumny.

While stressing that he has never been arrested by the police for any civil or criminal offence, the lawmaker insisted the man in the video circulating on social media was not him.

He said, “As a private and public person, I have never sprayed or mutilated the naira in my over 50 years on earth. It baffles me why these agents will fabricate fake news to tarnish my image ahead of the election. I therefore called on the IGP to investigate the faces behind the petition and prosecute them accordingly.

“They are scouting for fake news and non-existent things to blackmail me and lie to Edo people. Unfortunately, we know what they are up to. They are smelling the defeat already. Edo people have already decided, and no amount of State-sponsored intimidation will work.

“In Edo State, President Bola Tinubu-led APC administration is working. The federal government is reconstructing federal roads in Edo Central, Edo North, and Edo South. That is why Edo people must take sides with the APC and vote for me as the next governor of Edo State.

“We will bring the Federal Government closer to the Edo people. We have been isolated for too long, and it is time to end that alienation.”
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Mother Throws Disabled 6-year-old Son Into Crocodile Infested River [PHOTOS]

Published

3 days ago

May 7, 2024

Editor

A mother has thrown her disabled six-year-old son into a crocodile-infested river where he has reportedly been mauled to death by reptiles.

Savitri Kumar, 26, from Uttara Kannada, a district in Karnataka, India, had a heated argument with the boy’s father, Ravi Kumar, 27, who repeatedly ordered her to “throw the child away,” the Times of India reports.

Police say her husband allegedly questioned her decision to give birth to a child with a disability.

When the parents fought about their son again on Saturday evening, May 4, Savitri was “distressed” and reportedly threw her son into a waste canal that flows into the Kali river, which is infested with crocodiles.

Father of the son

Neighbours who witnessed this called the police, who deployed divers to search for the boy in the water, but to no avail, as it was dark.

They returned on Sunday morning, May 5, and found the child’s body, which showed bite marks all over.

The boy suffered severe injuries and was missing a hand, which a police officer suggested indicated that the boy was mauled to death by one or more crocodiles.

A post mortem has been ordered to determine the six-year-old’s cause of death.