The General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, Pastor Enoch Adeboye, has dismissed claims that he carried a placard in protest against former President Goodluck Jonathan.
Adeboye explained that the photograph showing him with a placard was taken during a prayer walk in February 2020, five years after Jonathan left office.
The cleric made the clarification on Sunday during the church’s November Thanksgiving service. He accused a journalist of misrepresenting the incident and misleading the public.
He said the report portrayed him as a wicked person for allegedly carrying a placard against Jonathan.
Adeboye explains why he carried the placard
Adeboye admitted that he carried a placard but insisted that the exercise was a prayer walk, not a political protest.
“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 added.
The cleric stressed that the date of the exercise made the claim against Jonathan inaccurate.
“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.
Jonathan left office in May 2015, when former President Muhammadu Buhari succeeded him.
Cleric criticises report over alleged misrepresentation
Adeboye accused the journalist of twisting the facts and criticised the publication for failing to verify the circumstances surrounding the photograph.
He 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 people accepted the report without checking its claims.
“I’m talking to those of you in the creative industry. Nobody checked,” he said.
What happened during the 2020 prayer walk?
On February 2, 2020, Adeboye led members of the RCCG on a prayer walk in Lagos over killings and insecurity across Nigeria.
The exercise followed a three-day fasting and prayer programme declared by the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN).
The programme sought divine intervention against terrorism, killings and other security challenges.
The procession began at the RCCG national headquarters in Ebute Meta, moved towards Atan Cemetery in Yaba and returned to the church.
During the exercise, Adeboye carried a placard bearing the inscription, “All Souls Are Precious to God.”
Photographs from the event later circulated online, with some social media users presenting them as evidence of an anti-Jonathan protest.
The prayer walk, however, took place under Buhari’s administration, not Jonathan’s.
