The General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG), Pastor Enoch Adeboye, has dismissed reports suggesting that he carried a placard in protest against former President Goodluck Jonathan, insisting that the exercise was a prayer walk against insecurity and killings in Nigeria.
Adeboye said the incident took place in 2020, five years after Jonathan left office, during the administration of former President Muhammadu Buhari.
The cleric spoke on Sunday at the church’s November Thanksgiving service, where he criticised journalists for allegedly misrepresenting the date and purpose of the exercise.
He said a recent report had portrayed him as a wicked person for carrying a placard against Jonathan, even though the activity was organised to pray for 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 said.
While acknowledging that he carried a placard during the exercise, Adeboye maintained that it was not a political demonstration.
“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 for 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 said.
Adeboye further argued that the date of the event should have been enough to expose the inaccuracy in the report, noting that Jonathan had ceased to be president in 2015.
“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,” Adeboye said.
He accused the journalist of twisting the facts and faulted the publication for failing to establish the circumstances surrounding the prayer walk before reporting it.
“But a journalist twisted it. I said, I did what I did in 2015. And everybody swallowed it,” he said.
The RCCG leader also recalled his exposure to journalism studies in the 1960s, saying he was taught the importance of investigative reporting and verifying information before publication.
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“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 added, “That things don’t appear as they may seem. Investigate, if you have a story, before you take it to the press.”
Addressing members of the creative industry, Adeboye expressed disappointment that the report had been accepted without proper verification.
“I’m talking to those of you in the creative industry. Nobody checked,” he said.
On February 2, 2020, Adeboye led members of the RCCG on a prayer walk in Lagos to draw attention to killings and insecurity across the country.
The exercise followed a three-day fasting and prayer programme declared by the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) to seek divine intervention and strengthen efforts to tackle terrorism and other security challenges.
Reports published at the time said the procession began at the RCCG national headquarters in Ebute Meta, Lagos, 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 prayer walk took place during Buhari’s administration, which began in May 2015 after he succeeded Jonathan.
The photograph later resurfaced on social media alongside claims that Adeboye had protested against Jonathan’s government, a description the cleric has now rejected.