4th June, 2014
Cyriacus Izuekwe & Simon Ateba
In what seems like a battle of pastors, a breakaway clergyman from the Synagogue Church of All Nations, SCOAN, has set up a New Synagogue a stone’s throw from Prophet T.B. Joshua’s church and has been attracting a lot of members, P.M.NEWS can reveal.
T.B. Joshua has warned his congregation not to attend the new church or be confused by the similarities between both places of worship.
The new church is called Christ Holy Mountain, A.K.A House of Prayer, but residents refer to it as the New Synagogue because the healing sessions, miracles and mode of worship is similar to Prophet T.B. Joshua’s.
The church is located at Ajata street, behind Igando-Ikotun Local Council Development Area in Lagos, western Nigeria.
Investigations revealed that many worshippers who come to see T.B Joshua’s church are now diverted to the New Synagogue where miracles and healing sessions are also performed in a similar manner.
Former members of T.B. Joshua’s church have also thronged the new church, it was learnt.
The battle of pastors became public recently wen Pastor T.B. Joshua, during a church service, warned his members not to attend the new church.
Joshua told worshippers that he was aware that former members of his church established a church in the area claiming that it is a New Synagogue Church. He warned members not to attend or be deceived because the church was not established by him.
P.M.NEWS learnt that the church is now providing alternative to numerous worshipers who come from within and outside the country to see Joshua but cannot due to the huge crowd waiting to see the prophet.
When P.M.NEWS visited the new church, the pastor of the church was not around to speak to our reporter. However, a senior worker at the church who identified himself simply as Godwin, confirmed that the church was founded by a breakaway pastor and some other members from SCOAN.
He said there was nothing new about members of a particular church receiving a call from God and establishing their own church.
Godwin said even Joshua prophesied that some of his members will leave the church and establish another church.
He said though both churches have similar ways of worship and miracle sessions, both churches are different as they have different names.
He said they were aware that Joshua had warned his members not attend the new church, but insisted that both churches are different.
Godwin declined to make further comment and asked our reporter to come back to see the new church’s pastor whose name he also declined to disclose.
T.B. Joshua has come under intense pressure in recent months with the death of a Cameroonian woman shortly after she was said to have been healed by the prophet.
The woman had arrived Nigeria via Aero Contractors Airlines for healing in T.B. Joshua’s church in January this year. She had been sick for some months and hoped T.B. Joshua could be the solution to her problem.
She met T.B. Joshua during a deliverance service in the church and was purportedly healed. But she died two days later in Lagos on 21 January.
After her death, Aero Contractors Airlines refused to refund the money to the relatives and insisted that they must use the ticket, even after they had paid for the remains of the woman to be airlifted to Douala.
Eventually, the airline gave relatives a ticket voucher and removed some charges, reducing the money to less than what was paid. The deceased’s corpse was taken back to Cameroon and she was buried in March 2014.