A former female disciple of the late Pastor Temitope Balogun Joshua, popularly known as TB Joshua, has come forward to accuse the cleric of raping her when she was underage. The woman, who was featured in a BBC investigative documentary, alleged that the late pastor first had unlawful carnal knowledge of her when she was 17 years old and continued to do so until she left his Synagogue Church of All Nations (SCOAN).
According to the woman, the pastor used his position of authority to manipulate her into having sex with him. She said that he told her that he was her father and that he was delivering her. He then took her to his room, asked her to remove her clothes, and raped her. She said that he broke her virginity and that she was screaming while he was whispering in her ear, telling her to stop acting like a baby and to be quiet. She also alleged that the pastor forced women he raped to have abortions if they became pregnant.
The woman further claimed that the late pastor was a sexual predator and a ritualist who asked her to find virgins for him to bring young girls into the disciple fold. She said that he would call these girls into his bedroom in the middle of the night to deflower them. She also alleged that he would take all the bed sheets and everything after he had raped them and that he would ask them to pack them and take them to the prayer mountain.
The allegations of abuse in a secretive Nigerian compound span almost 30 years. More than 25 former members spoke to the BBC, giving powerful corroborating testimony about their experiences within the church, spanning three decades up to 2019. The British victims were all between 15 and 21 years old when they joined the church. Multiple BBC interviewees compared their experiences to being in a cult.
The late pastor's motive behind the repeated molestation of women and young ladies, according to a disciple who claimed to have spent 14 years in the synagogue, was to strengthen his spiritual power. The woman who was featured in the documentary said that she witnessed a lot of abortions and that they started doing it inside the synagogue. She said that there was a place they called the Medical Department, where they would go through the back door of the pastor's office and downstairs. They would be given a concussion to drink, and they would get sick, or they would put metal pieces in their vagina and extract whatever was inside.
Upon his death in June 2021, TB Joshua was hailed as one of the most influential pastors in African history. Rising from poverty in Nigeria in the 1990s, he built an evangelical empire stretching across the globe and counted among his associates dozens of political leaders, celebrities, and international footballers.
The current leadership of the Synagogue Church of All Nations was contacted by the BBC with the allegations in the film. They replied that making unfounded allegations against Prophet TB Joshua was not a new occurrence and that none of the allegations was ever substantiated. However, they did not respond to the details of the allegations.
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