Despite Friday’s calamity at the Synagogue Church of All Nations (SCOAN), service were held yesterday. Prophet Temitope Joshua’s sermon was, however, unusual. He attributed the incident to the work of “the evil one”.
Prophet Joshua had earlier said an aircraft flew over the building just before it collapsed. A CCTV footage showing the “strange aircraft” overflying the building four times before it collapsed was shown to the congregation.
In the security camera footage, apparently from opposite the vast church compound, an aircraft is seen over the building four times at 11:30 am (1030 GMT), 11:43 am, 11:45 and 11:54 am.
The uncompleted building, five floors of which are visible above a high wall, is then seen to collapse at 12:44 pm, throwing up huge clouds of dust into the air.
“After the incident, the “strange aircraft” does not return,” a commentary accompanying the images adds.
There was no independent verification of the authenticity of the footage but Joshua said he would make it available to Nigeria’s security agencies.
Managing Director of Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) Mr. Ibrahim Abdulsalam said the matter is being investigated. He said Minister of Aviation Osita Chidoka had not directed him to comment on the matter. He said details would emerge shortly.
Joshua brought out a white sheet of paper which had an email sent by a convert who he said was a Boko Haram member.
“I did not bring this out before now because I did not want people with little faith to be scared and stop coming to church.
“Even my wife did not know of the existence of this mail. Only the people at the email department and myself knew of it and I told them not to disclose it to anyone.”
He said the picture on the mail is that of a man from Kogi State, residing in Jos with his soldier parent.
“He was a Boko Haram member as you have heard them read it, who came to SCOAN to plant a bomb but could not do it because of our God and got converted and went back to Jos with the explosives.
“I am showing members for them to know the God they serve. If I had shown it in the past, faithless people may not want to come to church again.
“We have to believe what happened so that our people can learn and be educated to be on alert at all times,” Joshua said, adding:
“Boko Haram will not stop here. I have said it before. It won’t stop here but our God will get back at them such that they will know it is because of what they have done in this church.
“Maybe, this one will be the end of the whole thing. I have remained silent because I have to. My life has been like that. People will lie from the beginning and later realise the truth. It is my life and I accept it. It is a good life”.
Prophet Joshua saluted the “heroes and God’s generals. It is a security matter and so, I have to allow the security people to do their job,” he said.
Immediately Fashola got to the scene, he queried the presence of church members ordering security personnel to send them out in order for rescue agencies to do their jobs.
“What are they doing here? This is now a national disaster. Cordon off this area and let anyone who is not a rescue operative be sent out so that professionals can do their jobs.
“Anyone obstructing the duties of emergency agencies should be arrested.”
To Prophet Joshua who arrived while the governor was issuing the arrest order, Fashola said: “We understand that this is an unfortunate situation but we need your men to understand that it is an emergency situation.
“Let them allow those who are trained to do their jobs. We cannot carry out emergency and rescue operations in this situation.”
While walking with the Prophet to his office for a meeting, the governor, who observed that construction was ongoing in the main building of the church, queried the leýgality of the action.
ANTHONY JOSHUA stopped a resilient Carlos Takam in the 10th round to successfully defend his IBF and WBA heavyweight world titles in Cardiff.
