The BBC reported that the late mega church leader TB Joshua is accused of committing sexual crimes on a large scale. It was also revealed that he kept his own daughter locked up, tortured her for many years, and eventually left her homeless on the streets of Lagos, Nigeria.
My dad was always afraid. One of the pastor’s daughters, Ajoke, was very scared that someone would tell the truth about the abuse she saw at her father’s church, the Synagogue Church of All Nations (Scoan). She was the first person to reach out to the BBC about it.
TB Joshua, who passed away in 2021 at 57 years old, is accused of hurting and mistreating many people for almost 20 years.
At 27 years old, Ajoke is hiding and has changed her last name from “Joshua. ” The BBC is not sharing her new name.
Not much is known about Ajoke’s birth mother, but it is thought that she was a member of TB Joshua’s church. Ajoke says she grew up with Evelyn, who was Joshua’s wife, from a very young age.
Until Ajoke was seven years old, she had a really good childhood and went on fun vacations with the Joshua family to places like Dubai.
But one day, everything was different. She got in trouble at school and had to leave for a while. Then a writer in the area said she was TB Joshua’s child but not born in marriage. She was taken out of school and brought to the Scoan compound in Lagos.
“I was told to go to the disciples’ room. ” I didn’t choose to be a follower. “I had to join,” she says.
The disciples were a special group of loyal followers who lived with and served TB Joshua inside the church building. People from different countries came to the compound and many of them stayed there for a long time.
They had to follow strict rules: they couldn’t sleep for long, they couldn’t use their phones or check their emails, and they had to call TB Joshua “Daddy”.
The followers were influenced and made things possible. Everyone was just following orders without thinking – like zombies. She says that no one was asking any questions.
As a child, Ajoke didn’t like to follow the rules like the other kids: she didn’t want to stand up when the pastor came in and didn’t like being told when to sleep.
The treatment began shortly after.
Shortly after she got there at seven years old, she was hit for wetting the bed and made to walk around with a sign that said she wets the bed.
One former female follower said that they were told Ajoke had bad spirits inside her that needed to be removed.
Once, in the meetings with his followers, he said that people could defeat her. Anyone in the girls’dorm could hit her and I only saw people slapping her as they walked by,” she says.
When Ajoke moved to the church in the Ikotun neighborhood of Lagos, people didn’t treat her nicely.
Rae, from the UK, says that she was seen as the outsider in her family. She lived in the church for 12 years as a follower. Like most of the former followers asked by the BBC, she chose to only give her first name.
Rae remembers when Ajoke slept for a long time and Joshua yelled at her to wake up.
Another follower brought her to the shower and beat her with an electrical cord before turning on the hot water, she explained.
Ajoke remembers that she was shouting very loudly and the water kept running on her head for a long time.
She says the abuse never stopped.
“We’re talking about many years of mistreatment. “Regular treatment I, as a child from a different mother, made everything that he [TB Joshua] believed in look less important.
The abuse got worse when she was 17 and talked to her dad about people who had been sexually abused.
“I saw some women followers go up to his room. ” They were leaving for a long time. I heard people saying,”Oh, this happened to me. “”He tried to have sex with me. A lot of people were saying the same thing,” she says.
The BBC talked to more than 25 former followers from different countries. They all said they experienced or saw sexual abuse.
“I couldn’t handle it anymore. ” I went straight into his office on that exact day. I yelled really loud and asked,”Why are you doing this. Why are you hurting all these women. “
I wasn’t scared of this man at all. “He tried to make me look away, but I kept looking into his eyes,” she says.
Emmanuel was in the church for 21 years and lived in the compound for over 10 years. He remembers that day very well.
“He [TB Joshua] was the first person to start hitting her. and then other people joined in,” he said.
“He was asking if you can picture what she’s saying about me. Even though they were hitting and beating her, she kept saying the same thing. “