Legit.ng journalist Adekunle Dada has over 5 years of experience covering metro and government policy
Ikotun, Lagos state – Six ways in which late Prophet TB Joshua, founder of the Synagogue Church of All Nations(SCOAN) tricked worshippers into believing his fake miracle had emerged.
According to BBC, the findings involved more than 25 church insiders from the UK, Nigeria, Ghana, the US, South Africa and Germany.
1 The emergency department
A former TB Joshua’s disciple, Agomoh Paul, who supervised the department for 10 years, said the “emergency department”, was responsible for making the so-called miracles look real.
The emergency room is said to be where sick people are screened to decide who should be filmed and prayed for by TB Joshua.
Agomoh said only trusted disciples are allowed to write placards for each follower to hold, detailing their made-up or exaggerated ailments
“Any cancerous situation, they send them away. Then, people who had normal open wounds that can heal, they bring them in, to present as cancer,”
“It was a complicated system. Not all disciples knew what was happening. It was a secret,”
2 Drugs
According to the BBC documentary, foreign visitors are told to stop taking their medication after arriving at SCOAN for healing.
But TB Joshua would order pharmacists to procure the same medicine and “put those drugs in their fruit drinks,” without their knowledge.
3: Brainwashing
It was gathered that followers were forced to use wheelchairs after being warned they would not be healed unless they sat in one when they met TB Joshua.
Agomoh said:
“We are telling them: ‘If you come out there, and walk with your legs, Papa will not pray for you. You need to shout: “Man of God, help me, I cannot walk,”
He added that the late televangelist told him that:
‘Don’t worry, we use this thing to build people’s faith in Christ.’ I wasn’t having in mind that I was actually doing something wrong. I thought I was doing something that would help to build the faith of people in the church,”
4: Bribes
Another former disciple said they were charged with finding people to pretend to be sick after which they paid them for acting out the fake miracles.
They go to the poorer areas to search for people living in poverty during healing crusades outside Nigeria.
TB Joshua was given pre-information on which rows the employed sick people were planted and what clothes they were wearing, so he would know who to perform his supposed miracles on.
“We would say: ‘We need you to just act out this particular scene and we will pay you,’
“We get them into hotels, we get them cleaned up. They come, they do what they do. We give them their money and the rest is history,”
She added that “People would be brought in just to pretend that they were healed,”
5: Fake medical certificates
The medical reports of the “healing miracles” broadcast were said to be fake.
Doctors were interviewed on camera to confirm people had been cured of HIV/Aids and diseases like cancer.
Agomo said:
“The whole thing is stage-managed and faked. It’s faked,”
“TB Joshua was the one who masterminded the whole manipulation,”
6: Video manipulation
Another former disciple of TB Joshua, Bisola, who was SCOAN’s chief video editor for five years The “miracles” were filmed and then edited.
Bisola said the video made the supposed healing look like it happened instantaneously with the before and after films were shot months, or even a year, apart.
“All you see on TV is the before and after, you don’t know the time-space,”
“What people see… is not real. It is a fraud,” she says about the clips and broadcasts she oversaw.
“I am speaking now as someone who was an insider,”
She added that It was all “organised” as SCOAN “cutaway” anything they did not want viewers to see
SCOAN worshippers take decision after BBC documentary
Legit.ng earlier reported that SCOAN worshippers have said their faith in the late Prophet TB Joshua remains unshaken even after the BBC’s investigation, which exposed the cleric’s alleged sexual crimes and manipulations.
One of the worshippers at the church, identified as Janet, said she was unmoved by the recent allegations against the pastor.
The lady reportedly came from Abuja and had spent two weeks in the church searching for a miracle. She said she was still hopeful for one.
Source: Legit.ng