As many as 25 people have given eyewitness accounts bordering on allegations of sexual assault, physical abuse, fake miracles and trauma allegedly suffered at the hands of a late Nigerian pastor, Temitope Joshua, alias TB Joshua, the BBC reported on Monday .
One of Africa's most influential religious leaders and richest pastors, Joshua had the world at his feet during his lifetime.
He was the founder of the Synagogue Church of All Nations, a 12-story building in Ikotun area of Lagos State where he lived along with many of his followers.
Joshua was known for his miracles that delivered people – followers and visitors – from all diseases, from cancer and HIV/AIDS to chronic migraines and blindness.
The healings performed by Joshua attracted the attention of a widespread global audience among evangelical churches throughout Europe and Africa in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
Many of his followers were drawn to his charity, but most came for his so-called miracles.
PUNCH Online reports that the cleric, born in 1963, died on Saturday, June 5, 2021, a week before his 58th birthday.
The cause of death was not revealed.
However, a statement from the church said the priest spent his last moment on earth in the service of God.
However, the BBC said it had conducted a two-year investigation in collaboration with an international media platform – Open Democracy – involving more than 15 BBC journalists on three continents.
The report said former insiders estimated Joshua made tens of millions of dollars through pilgrimages and other cash flows – fundraisers, video sales and stadium appearances abroad.
The investigation focused on allegations of sexual assault, physical abuse, solitary confinement and faked miracles, among other things.
“More than 25 eyewitnesses and alleged victims from the UK, Nigeria, Ghana, the USA, South Africa and Germany have reported what it was like at Joshua’s compound, with the most recent experiences occurring in 2019.”
“Testimony from dozens of survivors indicates that Joshua abused and raped young women from around the world several times a week for nearly 20 years,” the report said.
One of the victims who was among the “Disciples,” an elite group of followers who served and lived with Joshua on his compound; 21-year-old Brit Rae talked about her experience.
At that time, in 2002, she was studying graphic design at a university in Brighton, UK.
A close friend of Rae's, Carla, recalled how they both traveled to Nigeria in search of a mysterious man who seemed to be able to heal people with his hands. He was a Christian priest with a black beard and white robe. His name was TB Joshua. His followers called him “the Prophet.”
Rae and Carla planned to attend his church, the SCOAN, for just a week. But Rae never came home. She had moved into Joshua's estate.
“I left her there,” Carla says, tears streaming down her face. “I will never forgive myself for this.
“For me it was like she had died, but I couldn't mourn her,” Carla revealed.
Rae stated in her report that she was gay and believed that healing from Joshua would resolve her predicament.
She said: “I was gay and didn’t want to be,” she says. “I thought, 'Well, maybe this is the answer to my problems. Maybe this man can enlighten me again. For example, if he prays for me, I won't be gay anymore.'”
Describing the moment she entered the synagogue, Rae said, “I had a really involuntary reaction. I just burst into tears.”
She explained that Joshua chose her to be a “disciple” at that point.
She had believed that the priest would “cure” her sexuality and learn under his guidance, but according to her fantasy, this thought never came to fruition.
“We all thought we were in heaven, but we were in hell,” he added: “And terrible things happen in hell.”
Rae told how she suffered psychological trauma for two years during which she was banned from leaving the premises and no one was allowed to speak to her inside. She added that she had tried to commit suicide five times.
Many of the victims said this occurred frequently throughout their time at the site – up to two to four times per week. Some reported violent rapes that resulted in difficulty breathing or bleeding.
Many believed that they were the only ones being attacked and did not dare tell the other disciples what was happening to them, as they were all encouraged to report to each other.
Rae noted that it is “extremely difficult to understand how someone could endure psychological abuse to the point where they lose their critical thinking.”
“I was basically completely isolated… I had a complete breakdown. I tried to commit suicide five times,” she said.
After spending 12 years on Joshua's grounds, Rae returned to England.
She had eluded the disciples while on a trip to Mexico with the church, saying, “He made a big mistake, he lost control of me.”
Rae stated that it was only after she left that she realized that her family and friends had been sending her emails. She never received it.
“I look normal on the outside, but I’m not. This story is like a horror story. It's like something you see in fiction, but it's true,” Rae said while recalling the tragic trauma and the impact it had on her.
She expressed her disappointment that Joshua did not wait before his death to face the consequences of the atrocities he committed.
“The death of TB Joshua before he faces trial for the atrocities he committed was deeply frustrating. It only reinforces the gross sense of injustice that we all feel as its victims,” she noted.
BBC said it had contacted SCOAN with the allegations in the investigation. They did not respond but denied previous claims against Joshua.
“The making of unfounded accusations against Prophet TB Joshua is not a new occurrence… None of the allegations have ever been substantiated,” the church said.
The BBC said former supporters had previously tried to speak out about abuse but said they had been silenced or discredited by SCOAN, while two said they had been physically attacked.
As the BBC's Africa Eye filmed outside the church, a security guard shot over the crew's heads after they refused to hand over their footage, the report said.
Nigerian Bisola, who was also a “disciple,” said she was repeatedly raped by the late cleric.
Bisola, who spent 14 years at the compound, added that she was asked to recruit virgin girls for discipleship under threats of violence.
“TB Joshua asked me to recruit virgins for him…so he could disciple them and deflower them,” she revealed.
Bisola told the BBC that wooing Westerners was a key tactic of Joshua's
“He used the white people to market his brand,” she said.
The report said many of the young people who left their homes to meet Joshua in the early 2000s did not pay for their tickets.
It added that church groups across England were raising funds to send pilgrims to Lagos to witness these miracles – and Joshua donated Scoan money himself, senior former church insiders said.
Later, when the church was well established, Joshua charged high prices for the arrival and stay of pilgrims.
A broadcast journalist in Namibia, Jessica Kaimu, said she was raped by Joshua in the bathroom of his penthouse when she was 17, just weeks after she became a student.
She explained that Joshua was unmoved by her screams, saying: “I screamed and he whispered in my ear to stop acting like a baby… I was so traumatized I couldn't cry.”
Kaimu said she was raped for five years while she was a student.
One woman, who craved anonymity, said this happened to her twice before she was 15.
“It was so painful that he hurt me. Words can't express it properly. It scarred me for life,” she said.
The report noted that there were reports of four male personal servants of Joshua who were assigned the task of removing the physical evidence of this abuse.
“We had never seen anything like this before,” said Solomon Ashoms, a journalist who covers African religion, adding: “The secrets he had, the secrets he carried, [were] what people followed.”
Another victim, Victoria (name withheld), said she spent more than five years at the compound, adding that some victims were often chosen by Joshua from the church community.
Recounting her ordeal, Victoria said she was singled out while attending the church's Sunday school and said she was raped in Joshua's private quarters a few months later after her parents entrusted her to his care.
She was later recruited as a student.
Victoria said Joshua ordered some of his most trusted Nigerian students to help identify new victims, identifying the group informally known as the “Fisheries Division.”
A former South African disciple, Sihle, said she had three forced abortions in church.
Sihle said: “You get a drink and you get sick. Or they stick these pieces of metal into your vagina and extract everything. And you don't know if they are [accidentally] pull out your uterus.”
The investigative report states that the disciples attended to all of Joshua's needs, from giving him massages to helping him get dressed and spraying him with his perfume when he entered the room.
They also put plastic gloves over his hands so he could eat his food without touching a crumb.
A man once considered Joshua's number two in the church, Agomoh Paul, who left the premises after ten years, revealed that the whole miracle thing was scripted.
“This guy [was] a genius. Everything… [he did was] planned,” explained Paul.
A key part of that planning was faking the “miracles,” Paul said, which he said he oversaw.
He and other sources say that those “cured” were often paid to display or exaggerate their symptoms before their supposed healing took place.
In some cases, they say, people were unknowingly drugged while attending church or given medication to improve their condition and were later persuaded to testify about their recovery. Others were falsely told that they had tested positive for HIV/AIDS and that, thanks to Joshua's care, they were now virus-free.
Paul also noted that Joshua “wanted to control everyone and everything.” What he was really concerned about [was] control over people’s minds.”
The disciples said they had to work for hours every day without pay, running all aspects of the megachurch. All say sleep deprivation was common and lights were left on in dormitories at night, the report said.
The church, which still exists today, is run by his widow Evelyn.
During his lifetime, Joshua attracted dozens of politicians and celebrities to his church.