TheCable

Ajoke, the daughter of late Temitope Balogun Joshua, says her father led the physical abuse on her when she was just seven years of age. 

The late pastor is the founder of Synagogue Church of All Nations (SCOAN). He was popularly called TB Joshua.

TB Joshua died on June 5, 2021, aged 57.

The cleric was a controversial and influential pastor, whose church is based in the Ikotun area of Lagos.

Before his death, he was the subject of several controversies owing to his methods and healings.

On Monday, the BBC Africa Eye published a three-episode documentary, which contains accounts of former church members.

In the documentary, some of the former church members, who were known as TB Joshua’s disciples, narrated how the cleric allegedly manipulated, raped, tortured, and forced them to commit abortions.

Ajoke was also featured in the documentary.

According to the BBC, little is known about Ajoke’s mother, who was believed to be one of TB Joshua’s congregants.

Ajoke was raised by Evelyn, Joshua’s widow.

She told the BBC that she had a very happy childhood and went on holidays with Joshua’s family to Dubai.

Things changed for her when she was suspended from school for a misdemeanor, and a local journalist wrote an article, wherein she was described as the “illegitimate” child of the cleric.

She said she was pulled out of school and taken to the church in Lagos at age seven.

HER EXPERIENCE AT THE CHURCH

Ajoke told the BBC that she was taken to the disciples’ room in the church and forced to be part of the group.

In the documentary, the cleric’s daughter said her father brainwashed the disciples to the point that nobody could question his actions and instructions.

“The disciples were both brainwashed and enablers. Everybody was just acting based on command — like zombies. Nobody was questioning anything,” she said.

“My dad had fear, constant fear. He was very afraid that someone would speak up.”

Ajoke narrated how she suffered consistent abuse from her father in the church because “my existence as a child from another mother undermined everything he claimed to stand for”.

She was beaten for wetting the bed at age seven and then forced to walk around the compound with a sign around her neck that read: “I am a bedwetter”.

Rae, one of TB Joshua’s former disciples, narrated how the cleric shouted at Ajoke for sleeping too long and then another disciple took her to the shower and “whipped her with an electrical cord and then turned the hot water on”.

At 17, Ajoke went to her father’s office and challenged him about his sexual abuse of the disciples.

“I couldn’t take it any more. I walked directly into his office on that very day. I shouted at the top of my voice: ‘Why are you doing this? Why are you hurting all these women?” She asked.

“I had lost every iota of fear for this man. He tried to stare me down, but I was looking in his eyes.”

After challenging her father, the cleric started hitting her and then others joined the assault, she said.

After the assault, she was dragged out to the office and put in a room away from the church, where she lived for more than a year.

At age 19, she was escorted to the front gates of the church by security guards and left there. The guards told her that she was never to be allowed inside the church.

Afterwards, she became homeless and had to survive from the streets.