The General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG), Pastor Enoch Adeboye, has expressed displeasure over being labelled a wicked man following a false claim that he once carried a placard in protest against former President Goodluck Jonathan.
Adeboye said a journalist misrepresented an old photograph of him carrying a placard during a prayer walk, wrongly linking the incident to Jonathan’s administration.
The cleric, who spoke during the church’s November Thanksgiving service on Sunday, insisted that the photograph was taken in 2020, five years after Jonathan left office in 2015.
Recounting how the allegation emerged, Adeboye said a report portrayed him as a wicked person because he allegedly carried a placard against the former president.
“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 said.
The RCCG leader acknowledged carrying the placard but maintained that it was part of a prayer walk organised to seek divine intervention over insecurity and killings in the country.
“True, I carried a placard. I can’t deny that. It was important. It was a prayer walk. We wanted to pray,” he said.
He explained that the exercise followed a directive 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.
Adeboye faulted the report for linking the exercise to Jonathan, stressing that the former president had left office five years before the photograph was taken.
“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 accused the journalist of twisting the facts and lamented that the allegation gained widespread acceptance without anyone checking its authenticity.
The cleric also criticised the apparent disregard for investigative journalism, recalling lessons he learnt about fact-checking during his exposure to journalism studies in the 1960s.
He said journalists should investigate stories and establish the facts before publishing them.
“Things don’t appear as they may seem. Investigate, if you have a story, before you take it to the press,” he said.
Addressing members of the creative industry, Adeboye expressed disappointment that nobody appeared to have verified the circumstances surrounding the photograph.
The prayer walk took place on February 2, 2020, when Adeboye led RCCG members through parts of Lagos to express concern over killings and insecurity across Nigeria.
The exercise followed a three-day fasting and prayer programme declared by the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) to seek divine intervention against terrorism and other security challenges.
The procession started at the RCCG national headquarters in Ebute Meta, proceeded towards Atan Cemetery in Yaba and returned to the church.
Photographs from the event showed Adeboye carrying a placard bearing the inscription, “All Souls Are Precious to God.”
The exercise took place during the administration of former President Muhammadu Buhari, who succeeded Jonathan in May 2015.
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