The General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG), Pastor Enoch Adeboye, has refuted claims that he once carried a placard in protest against former President Goodluck Jonathan, describing the reports as a distortion of facts.
Speaking during the church’s Thanksgiving service on Sunday, Adeboye said the widely circulated photograph of him holding a placard was taken during a prayer walk in February 2020, five years after Jonathan left office in May 2015.
According to the cleric, the prayer walk was organised to seek divine intervention over the rising insecurity and killings across Nigeria, not as a demonstration against any political leader.
Adeboye expressed concern over what he described as a misleading narrative that portrayed him as having publicly opposed Jonathan while he was president.
“Recently, somebody wrote or said that Pastor Adeboye is a very wicked man because he carried a placard against President Goodluck Jonathan. It is true that I carried a placard, but it was during a prayer walk. We wanted to pray,” he said.
He explained that the exercise was carried out in line with a directive encouraging churches to organise prayer walks within their communities.
“The chairman said all churches should hold prayer walks around their churches, and that was exactly what I did,” he stated.
Adeboye stressed that the timeline of events clearly contradicts claims that the placard was aimed at Jonathan’s administration.
“I carried that placard in 2020. Jonathan ceased to be president in 2015. The event took place five years later, during President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration,” he said.
The RCCG leader accused the journalist behind the claim of twisting the facts and lamented what he described as the public’s readiness to accept the narrative without verification.
He also recalled his exposure to journalism studies in the 1960s, noting that one of the fundamental principles taught at the time was investigative journalism and the need to verify facts before publication.
“In those days, they taught us that things are not always as they appear. If you have a story, investigate it before taking it to the press,” he said.
Addressing members of the creative and media industries, Adeboye expressed disappointment that the claims gained traction without proper fact-checking.
“Nobody checked,” he added.
On February 2, 2020, Adeboye led RCCG members on a prayer walk in Lagos following a three-day fasting and prayer programme declared by the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) in response to growing security challenges in the country.
The procession reportedly commenced from the RCCG national headquarters in Ebute Meta, proceeded towards Atan Cemetery in Yaba, and returned to the church premises.
Photographs from the event showed Adeboye holding a placard bearing the inscription, “All Souls Are Precious to God.”
The prayer walk took place during the administration of former President Muhammadu Buhari. However, images from the event later circulated on social media alongside claims that Adeboye had staged a protest against Jonathan’s government, a narrative the cleric has now dismissed as inaccurate.
