‘I Didn’t Carry Placard Against Jonathan’ — Pastor Adeboye Accuses Journalists Of Misrepresentation
Pastor Enoch Adeboye, General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG), has challenged reports linking him to a protest against former President Goodluck Jonathan, describing the claims as a distortion of the circumstances surrounding a 2020 prayer walk.
Adeboye said he carried a placard during a prayer exercise in Lagos in February 2020, when Muhammadu Buhari was president, insisting that the event had nothing to do with Jonathan, who left office in 2015.
Speaking during the church’s November Thanksgiving service on Sunday, the cleric accused some journalists of presenting the incident out of context and misleading the public.
He recalled that a report had described him as a wicked man for allegedly carrying a placard against Jonathan.
Adeboye, however, admitted carrying the placard but maintained that it was part of a religious exercise aimed at praying against insecurity and killings across the country.
“Recently, just one mischievous 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,’” he recounted.
He said the prayer walk followed an instruction that churches should organise similar exercises around their premises.
“True, I carried a placard. I can’t deny that. It was important. It was a prayer walk. We wanted to pray,” he stated.
The RCCG leader questioned how anyone could attribute the incident to Jonathan’s administration when the former president had left office five years earlier.
“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,” he said.
He further accused journalists of failing to investigate the incident before publishing reports, recalling lessons he learnt about investigative journalism during his exposure to the discipline in the 1960s.
According to him, journalists must establish the facts surrounding a story instead of publishing information based on assumptions.
“Things don’t appear as they may seem. Investigate, if you have a story, before you take it to the press,” Adeboye said.
The prayer walk took place on February 2, 2020, when Adeboye led RCCG members through parts of Lagos to express concern over insecurity and killings in Nigeria.
The exercise followed a three-day fasting and prayer programme declared by CAN. During the procession, Adeboye carried a placard bearing the message, “All Souls Are Precious to God.”
The event occurred during Buhari’s administration, which began in May 2015 after Jonathan handed over power.
