The Synagogue Church of All Nations (SCOAN) on Wednesday said it would take legal steps over reports that the fire outbreak on April 27 at the church’s old site affected the tomb of its founder Prophet TB Joshua.
The church had earlier stated that the fire broke out at Agodo-Egbe, far from the Ikotun-Egbe site of the main church premises where Joshua’s tomb is sited.
In a statement signed by James Akhigbe of the church’s legal department, SCOAN said it was “shocked, disappointed and embarrassed” at the insistence of an unnamed media house that the fire gutted part of Joshua’s tomb.
The statement read, “Curiously, the over two kilometres distance between the Agodo prayer resort where the minor fire incident was recorded at one of the general-purpose stores; and the Ikotun-Egbe Headquarter, Lagos, premises of the Church where the tomb is located 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.
“Also, the fact that the Church’s statement providing all the details of the incident had been wildly circulated long before the misleading report of the media house triggers a lot of curiosity.
“In the circumstances, the Church is constrained to view the unfortunate media report by the said media house as deliberate mischief contrived by light-detesting detractors, probably in cahoots with some disgruntled journalists, to advance a narrative pre-designed to embarrass the Church and the memories of our beloved Prophet.”
The church further said that it has instructed that “necessary legal steps be taken in order to prevent a recurrence and protect the public from this manner of deliberate misinformation in the future.”
