Pastor Adeboye Denies Protesting Against Jonathan, Says Placard Was For 2020 Prayer Walk Against Insecurity

The General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG), Pastor Enoch Adeboye, has finally addressed the viral photo of him carrying a placard, saying it was not a protest against former President Goodluck Jonathan.

Adeboye said the photo was taken on February 2, 2020, during a prayer walk against insecurity — five years after Jonathan left office in May 2015.

Speaking during the RCCG November Thanksgiving Service on Sunday at Ebute-Metta, Lagos, Adeboye said a journalist twisted the story.

“True, I carried a placard. I can’t deny that. It was important. It was a prayer walk. We wanted to pray,” he said.

“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.”

Advertisement

Placard Inscription: “All Souls Are Precious To God”

BIGPEN checks show Adeboye led RCCG members from the National Headquarters in Ebute-Meta to Atan Cemetery, Yaba, in compliance with a directive by the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) for churches to pray against killings, banditry and terrorism.

The placard he carried read: “All Souls Are Precious To God.”The image later trended online with false claims it was an anti-Jonathan protest. Fact-checks confirmed it was from the Buhari era.

RCCG had in June dismissed the claim as false.

Recounting the report, Adeboye said, “Recently, somebody wrote in the papers, or said somehow, ‘Pastor Adeboye is a very wicked man. After all, we know that not too long ago, he carried a placard against President Goodluck Jonathan.’”

While acknowledging that he carried a placard, the RCCG leader maintained that it was part of a prayer exercise organised by churches and not a political demonstration against Jonathan.

Advertisement

“True, I carried a placard. I can’t deny that. It was important. It was a prayer walk. We wanted to pray,” he said.

Adeboye explained that the exercise followed a directive from the chairman of the relevant Christian body asking 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.

He further challenged the accuracy of the report, noting that the placard incident occurred in 2020, five years after Jonathan left office in 2015.

“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 stated.

The cleric accused the journalist of twisting his account and publishing misleading information without properly investigating the circumstances surrounding the prayer walk.

Advertisement

He also criticised what he described as the failure of some journalists to verify information before making it public.

Recalling his exposure to journalism studies in the 1960s, Adeboye said he was taught the importance of investigative journalism and the need to establish facts before publishing a story.

“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.”

FOLLOW BIGPEN NIGERIA - Get Breaking News Alerts

📱

WhatsApp

f

Facebook

X

X