Allegations alongside evidence of abuse and torture by the late founder of Synagogue Church of all Nations, to scores of former members of the Ministry, has been uncovered by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC).
Five British – allege atrocities, including rape and forced abortions, caused by the late founder, Temitope Balogun (TB) Joshua, were also revealed.
The allegations of abuse in a secretive Lagos compound span almost 20 years, with at least 150 foreign visitors living with him as ‘disciples’ inside his compound.
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.”
The church did not respond to the allegations but said previous claims have been unfounded.
“Making unfounded allegations against Prophet TB Joshua is not a new occurrence… None of the allegations was ever substantiated,” they wrote.
The preacher, who died in 2021, was a hugely successful televangelist who had a large global following.
The discoveries, 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; as well as allegations of forced abortions inside the church following the alleged rapes by Joshua, including one woman who says she had five terminations.
Moreso, accounts detailing how Joshua faked his “miracle healings,” as he broadcast them in video tapes to millions of people around the world, was disclosed
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.
“I was gay and I didn’t want to be. I thought: ‘Well, maybe this is the answer to my problems. Maybe this man can straighten me out. Like if he prays for me, I won’t be gay any more.
“We all thought we were in heaven, but we were in hell, and in hell terrible things happen,” she told the BBC.
According to her, she was sexually assaulted by Joshua and subjected to a form of solitary confinement for two years.
The abuse, she said, was so severe as she attempted suicide multiple times inside the compound.
Many victims, giving powerful corroborating testimony about their experiences within the church, were in their teens when they first joined.
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In some of the British cases, their transport to Lagos was paid for by Joshua, in co-ordination with other United Kingdom (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.
The two-year investigation, in collaboration with international media platform Open Democracy, has involved more than 15 BBC journalists across three continents.
They gathered archive video recordings, documents, and hundreds of hours of interviews to corroborate Rae’s testimony and uncover further harrowing stories.
More than 25 eyewitnesses and alleged victims, from the UK, Nigeria, Ghana, United States, South Africa and Germany, have provided accounts of what it was like inside Joshua’s compound, with the most recent experiences in 2019.
Another British woman, Anneka, from Derby, in the Midlands, revealed she was also entranced by the broadcast videos.
“The whole room went completely still,” she says, describing the moment her church congregation first encountered the tapes when she was 16.
“This is what Jesus would have done,” she remembers thinking before Ste went on to travel to Nigeria.
Bisola, a Nigerian who spent 14 years inside the compound, says courting Westerners was a key tactic.
“He used the white people to market his brand,” she says.
Former insiders estimate Joshua made tens of millions of dollars from pilgrims and other money streams – fundraising, video sales, and stadium appearances abroad.
Agomoh Paul says he was in charge of the “miracles” production.
He and other sources say that those “cured” had often been paid to perform or exaggerate their symptoms before their supposed healing took place.
In some cases, they say, people had been unknowingly drugged or given medicine to improve their conditions while at the church, and later persuaded to give testimony about their recovery.
Others were falsely told they had tested positive for HIV/Aids and that, thanks to Joshua’s ministrations, they had now become virus-free.
“That guy [was] a genius. Everything… [he did was] planned out,” Paul, who was once regarded as Joshua’s number two in the church, who left after 10 years in the compound, said.
READ ALSO: Apostle Suleman Reveals Why He Attacked TB Joshua When He Was Alive
Victoria, who asked for a name change for safety reasons and who spent more than five years in the compound, said sexual assault victims were often hand picked by Joshua from the church congregation.
According to her, she was picked out while attending the church’s Sunday school, and says she was raped in Joshua’s private quarters a few months later, after her parents entrusted her into his care.
Recruited as a resident disciple, Victoria said Joshua ordered some of his most trusted Nigerian disciples to help identify new victims for the “fishing department.”
Another disciple involved in similar recruitment was Bisola.
“TB Joshua asked me to recruit virgins for him… So that he could bring them into the disciple-fold and disvirgin them,” she says.
She participated because of both “indoctrination” and threats of violence, she says, adding she herself was repeatedly raped by Joshua.
Jessica Kaimu, now a broadcast journalist in Namibia, says she was just 17 and a virgin when Joshua raped her in the bathroom of his penthouse, within weeks of her becoming a disciple.
“I was screaming and he was whispering in my ear that I should stop acting like a baby… I was so traumatised, I couldn’t cry,” she said
Interviewees who say they were raped and became pregnant by Joshua, explained how they were also then given forced abortions inside the compound – in an area known as the “medical department” or “clinic”.
“It would all be done in secrecy.
“You are given a concoction to drink and you get sick. Or they put these metal pieces in your vagina and they extract whatever. And you don’t know whether they’re [accidentally] pulling out your womb,” Sihle, a South African former disciple, who says she had three forced abortions in the church.
Sihle wept throughout her interview, as did Jessica who said she was given five forced abortions.
Bisola explained she witnessed “dozens” of abortions during her 14 years inside the church.
She added that, at times, she would climb to the highest floor of the compound and cry, begging God to save her.
