Pastor Adeboye: I did not carry placard against President Jonathan
.... Insists facts about 2020 Prayer Walk were misrepresented
The General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG), Pastor Enoch Adeboye, has corrected the false narrative concerning a prayer walk he led in 2020, urging journalists to always factcheck to avoid spreading false information.
Pastor Adeboye said reports have wrongly linked the prayer walk to former President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration, notwithstanding that Jonathan left office in 2015.
The cleric spoke on Sunday during the church’s November Thanksgiving Service, where he expressed disappointment over reports suggesting that he carried a placard to protest against President Jonathan’s government.
He explained that the prayer walk was organised to seek God’s intervention over insecurity and killings in Nigeria and was not a political protest.
Adeboye admitted carrying a placard but insisted that the circumstances surrounding the event had been misrepresented.
“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 by the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) for churches to organise prayer walks around their premises.
The cleric stressed that the event took place in 2020, five years after Jonathan had left office and during the administration of former President Muhammadu Buhari.
“I carried the placard in 2020. Jonathan ceased to be president in 2015. I carried the placard in the second term of Buhari,” he said.
Adeboye accused purveyors of the misleading narrative of twisting the facts, stressing that there is always need to investigate before publishing reports.
He recalled his exposure to journalism studies in the 1960s, insisting on the importance of investigative journalism and factchecking.
He said journalists should not rush to publish stories without first establishing the facts.
He urged media practitioners to “Investigate, if you have a story, before you take it to the press.”
The prayer walk took place on February 2, 2020, in Lagos. Pastor Adeboye led RCCG members from the church’s national headquarters in Ebute Meta towards Atan Cemetery in Yaba before returning to the church.
Photographs from the exercise showed the cleric carrying a placard with the inscription, “All Souls Are Precious to God.”
The exercise was organised to express concern over killings and insecurity in Nigeria and followed a three-day fasting and prayer programme declared by the CAN.
