The authority of Synagogue Church of All Nation (SCOAN) has said there was no fire around the tomb of its founder, Pastor Temitope Balogun (TB) Joshua.
It said: “The minor fire outbreak, which was recorded on April 27, occurred at the church prayer resort at Agodo-Egbe, a different church site, which is over two kilometres away from the Ikotun-Egbe site of the main church where the tomb of the late Prophet TB Joshua is sited.”
The clarification was contained in a statement issued yesterday titled: “No Fire Incident At All Around the Tomb of TB Joshua”. It was signed by the Legal Officer of the church, James Akhigbe.
The church said it was “shocked, disappointed and embarrassed” that in spite of the statement promptly issued by the church and made available to media houses on the incident, a supposedly reputable media house would still go ahead to write about a non-existent fire near the tomb of Prophet T. B. Joshua.”
It regretted that the supposed media house had “abandoned all the known ethics of responsible journalism, the sacred journalistic principles of truthfulness and accuracy and descended with reckless abandon to the abyss of sensationalism and junk journalism when it reported, falsely, that the fire outbreak had gutted part of the late prophet’s tomb.
“Quite unfortunately enough, many other smaller media houses fed from this false reportage and thereby got the public largely misinformed.”
The statement said there was a distance of over two kilometres between the Agodo prayer resort where the minor fire incident was recorded at one of the general purpose stores and the Ikotun-Egbe headquarters premises of the church where the tomb was located.”
“It is too far apart to give room for any form of confusion or mix-up by any careful, genuine and honest reporter who is out to for the truth,” the statement said.
The church assured the public that regardless of how much the agents of darkness might strive; it stood on the promises of God that light would always prevail.
To prevent a recurrence, the church said it had instructed that necessary legal steps be taken “to protect the public from this manner of deliberate misinformation in future.”
