Pastor TB Joshua Links Building Collapse of Synagogue Church Tragedy, That Killed 17 People To Strange Aircraft
The Founder and General Overseer of The Synagogue Church of All Nations, Temitope Joshua, has linked the collapse of an uncompleted Guest House owned by his church to a “strange aircraft” which he said hovered around the building before its collapse.
Mr. Joshua said the
plane hovered around the collapsed building for over 30 minutes.
The clergyman spoke
just as emergency officials told this newspaper that 17 people died in the
incident while 123 others were evacuated alive and rushed to hospital.
Briefing
journalists, including a PREMIUM TIMES reporter, on the incident on Saturday,
the pastor played a CCTV footage of a flying aircraft to back his claim.
In the footage, a
plane was seen flying over the collapsed guest house at four different times on
Friday morning — 11: 30 a.m, 11: 43 a.m, 11:45 a.m and 11: 54 a.m.
The building collapsed
at 12:44 p.m Friday afternoon.
PREMIUM TIMES was
unable to authenticate the footage, and it remains unclear whether there is
indeed a relationship between the flying aircraft and the collapse of the
building.
But in his speech,
Mr. Joshua insisted the aircraft, which flew past almost an hour before the
incident, was responsible for the collapse of the building.
The pastor said he
was the target of the attack.
“Immediately I left the prayer room (which is a 10-minute drive form the church) for the church, I got a call that a jet was hovering over the prayer room but as I finished bathing and moved to the prayer room, I got another call that the jet has moved to the church and that was it,” Mr. Joshua said.
“Immediately I left the prayer room (which is a 10-minute drive form the church) for the church, I got a call that a jet was hovering over the prayer room but as I finished bathing and moved to the prayer room, I got another call that the jet has moved to the church and that was it,” Mr. Joshua said.
“Members cannot be
the target, the easier way to stop this church is to get the head and from my
explanation, you know the truth,” he added.
Mr. Joshua called
on security agents to study the CCTV footage as they investigate the incident.
He promised to
speak further on the incident during service on Sunday.
”Service will hold
tomorrow and I will state my position tomorrow in service, you can watch it
live on Emmanuel TV,” he said.
He also apologized to the press
following the hostile treatment of journalists by members of his church.
“We are very sorry
on their behalf,” he said. “Our members are not hostile. The Bible is our
standard. Even the Bible today, without the press, it cannot be accessible to
many. Our members have respect for the press. When we fight the press, we are
fighting Emmanuel TV. They value you people.”
Meanwhile, rescue operations at the site of the collapsed hotel is still going on.
Authorities of the National Emergency Management Association, NEMA, said 17 people died in the incident while 123 others were rescued alive.
S
peaking on the attitude of church members, NEMA spokesperson, Ibrahim Farinloye, said, “They are not too hostile neither are they receptive. We handled the equipment while they handled crowd control.”
Meanwhile, rescue operations at the site of the collapsed hotel is still going on.
Authorities of the National Emergency Management Association, NEMA, said 17 people died in the incident while 123 others were rescued alive.
S
peaking on the attitude of church members, NEMA spokesperson, Ibrahim Farinloye, said, “They are not too hostile neither are they receptive. We handled the equipment while they handled crowd control.”
As at 5:50 p.m.
when our reporter left the scene, ambulances were still rushing rescued victims
to the nearby Igando General Hospital.
The church members
however remained hostile to journalists despite the apology by Mr. Joshua.
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