The General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, Pastor Enoch Adeboye, has accused journalists of misrepresenting the date he carried a placard during a prayer walk, alleging that the report falsely linked the incident to former President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration.
Adeboye said the incident occurred in 2020, five years after Jonathan left office in 2015, insisting that the walk was organised to pray against insecurity and killings in the country.
The cleric spoke to his congregation on Sunday during the church’s November Thanksgiving service, where he recounted how the report portrayed him as a wicked man for carrying a placard allegedly against the former president.
He said the report gained widespread acceptance without journalists verifying the circumstances surrounding the incident.
“Recently, just one mischievous somebody wrote in the papers, or said somehow, ‘Pastor Adeboye is a very wicked man. After all, we know that not too long ago, he carried a placard against President Goodluck Jonathan,’” he said.
Adeboye said he initially smiled when he learnt about the report, insisting that although he carried a placard, the incident was a prayer walk rather than a protest against Jonathan.
“True, I carried a placard. I can’t deny that. It was important. It was a prayer walk. We wanted to pray,” he said.
He explained that the exercise followed a directive for churches to organise prayer walks around their premises.
“The chairman said all churches should do a prayer walk near their churches. That’s what I did,” he said.
The cleric said the date of the incident contradicted the claim that he had carried the placard against Jonathan while he was president.
“But I carried the placard in 2020. Jonathan ceased to be president in 2015. I carried the placard five years in the second term of Buhari,” Adeboye said.
He accused the journalist of twisting the facts and criticised the failure to investigate the circumstances before publishing the report.
“But a journalist twisted it. I said, I did what I did in 2015. And everybody swallowed it,” he said.
Adeboye also recalled his exposure to journalism studies in the 1960s, saying he learnt about investigative journalism and the need to verify information before publication.
“I remember in those days in the Department of Journalism, when you go there and you take a course, they talked about something called investigative journalism,” he said.
He added, “That things don’t appear as they may seem. Investigate, if you have a story, before you take it to the press.”
Addressing members of the creative industry, Adeboye expressed disappointment that the report had been accepted without proper checks.
“I’m talking to those of you in the creative industry. Nobody checked,” he said.
On February 2, 2020, Adeboye led members of the RCCG on a prayer walk in Lagos to express concern over killings and insecurity across Nigeria.
The exercise followed a three-day fasting and prayer programme declared by the Christian Association of Nigeria to seek divine intervention and strengthen efforts to tackle terrorism and other security challenges.
According to reports published at the time, the procession began at the RCCG’s national headquarters in Ebute Meta, Lagos, proceeded towards Atan Cemetery in Yaba and returned to the church.
Photographs from the event showed Adeboye carrying a placard bearing the inscription, “All Souls Are Precious to God.”
The walk took place during the administration of former President Muhammadu Buhari, who succeeded Jonathan in May 2015.
The photograph subsequently circulated on social media alongside claims that Adeboye had protested against Jonathan’s government.
(Punch)
