The General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, Pastor Enoch Adeboye, has dismissed reports linking a photograph of him carrying a placard to a protest against former President Goodluck Jonathan.
Adeboye said the incident occurred in February 2020, five years after Jonathan left office, explaining that the exercise was a prayer walk against insecurity and killings in the country.
The cleric spoke on Sunday during the church’s November Thanksgiving service, where he criticised journalists for allegedly misrepresenting the circumstances surrounding the photograph.
He recalled that a report had portrayed him as being hostile towards Jonathan because he was seen carrying a placard during the procession.
According to him, although he carried the placard, the exercise was not a political protest but a religious activity organised to seek divine intervention over the country’s security challenges.
“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 prayer walk followed a directive asking churches to organise similar activities around their premises.
“The chairman said all churches should do a prayer walk near their churches. That’s what I did,” he added.
He maintained that the date of the exercise should have been enough to establish that it had nothing to do with Jonathan’s administration.
“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.
The RCCG leader also faulted the journalist responsible for the report, accusing the publication of distorting the facts and failing to verify the circumstances before going public.
He expressed concern that the report gained widespread acceptance without adequate scrutiny.
Adeboye, who recalled studying journalism-related courses in the 1960s, stressed the importance of investigative reporting and verification in professional journalism.
“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 further urged journalists to look beyond appearances and establish the facts before publishing reports.
“That things don’t appear as they may seem. Investigate, if you have a story, before you take it to the press,” he added.
The cleric also expressed disappointment that members of the creative industry failed to question the report before accepting its claims.
“Nobody checked,” he said.
Adeboye led members of the RCCG on a prayer walk in Lagos on February 2, 2020, to express concern over killings and insecurity across the country.
The procession, which followed a three-day fasting and prayer programme declared by the Christian Association of Nigeria, began at the church’s national headquarters in Ebute Meta, proceeded towards Atan Cemetery in Yaba and returned to the church.
Photographs from the exercise showed Adeboye holding a placard with the inscription, “All Souls Are Precious to God.”
The event took place under the administration of former President Muhammadu Buhari, who succeeded Jonathan in May 2015.
