Numerous former members of the Synagogue Church of All Nations, including five British ones, have accused the late Nigerian TB Joshua of crimes including forced abortions and rape. Nearly two decades have passed since the abuse claims at a private Lagos property began.

The Synagogue Church of All Nations stated that earlier assertions were baseless but did not address the current accusations. The charismatic and incredibly popular preacher and televangelist TB Joshua passed away in 2021, leaving behind a sizable worldwide following.

After a two-year study, the following was found:

Numerous eyewitness reports of Joshua's physical abuse or torture, including incidents involving the mistreatment of children and witnesses to beatings and shackling.

Many women report that Joshua sexually attacked them, some of whom allege they were raped for years on end inside the compound. Following Joshua's alleged rapes, there have been numerous allegations of forced abortions inside the church; one lady claims to have had five terminations. Numerous first-hand reports that were televised to millions of people worldwide explaining how Joshua staged his "miracle healings"

One of the victims, Rae, was a British woman who was 21 years old when she left Brighton University in 2002 to join the religion after being accepted. She was one of Joshua's alleged "disciples" for the following twelve years, living inside his convoluted concrete fortress in Lagos.

"We all thought we were in heaven, but we were in hell, and hell, terrible things happen," she stated to reporters.

Rae claims that Joshua violated her sexually and kept her in a kind of solitary confinement for two years. She claims she made several attempts at suicide inside the property because of the extreme mistreatment.

With millions of followers on social media and a Christian TV program named Emmanuel TV, the Synagogue Church of All Nations [Scoan] has a large global following. Tens of thousands of pilgrims from Europe, the Americas, South East Asia, and Africa visited the church in Nigeria in the 1990s and early 2000s to see Joshua perform "healing miracles".

Inside, at least 150 guests cohabitated as his disciples in his compound sometimes for decades, in Lagos. Rae lived in Joshua's compound for 12 years, More than 25 former "disciples" shared compelling, corroborated testimonies about their experiences inside the church, with the most recent events occurring in 2019. They spoke to reporters from the UK, Nigeria, the US, South Africa, Ghana, Namibia, and Germany. When they initially joined, many victims were in their teens. In a few British situations, Joshua coordinated with other UK churches to cover the cost of their transportation to Lagos.

Rae and several other respondents likened their experiences to belonging to a cult.

Namibian Jessica Kaimu claims that her torture lasted for more than five years. She claims that Joshua first sexually assaulted her when she was 17 years old and that in the years that followed, Joshua caused her to undergo five forced abortions at that time.

"These were backdoor type… medical treatments that we were going through… it could have killed us," she stated to the reporters.

According to other interviewees, they were constantly deprived of sleep and undressed, tortured with electrical cords and horse whips.

TB Joshua was acclaimed as one of the most significant preachers in African history at his death in June 2021. After escaping poverty, he established an evangelical empire that included international football players, celebrities, and several political figures as its allies.

However, when a hotel for church pilgrims collapsed in 2014, killing at least 116 people, he drew some attention during his lifetime.

More about the claims made by TB Joshua

Extended read: "Dreadful events occurred" - within TB Joshua's "church of horrors"

Profile: The discredited televangelist from Nigeria

This is the first time that some former church insiders have come out to go on the record; the reporter's investigation was conducted in collaboration with the global media platform Open Democracy. They claim to have been effectively silenced despite years of attempts to sound the alarm.

Many of our Nigerian witnesses report that when they had previously spoken out against the abuse and uploaded films on YouTube with accusations, they were subjected to physical attacks, and in one case, shots.

The church's security also opened fire on a reporting crew that tried to film the church's Lagos compound from a public roadway in March 2022. 

The claims in our probe were shared with Scoan by the reporters. Although it refuted earlier allegations made against TB Joshua, it did not reply to them. "It is very uncommon to make baseless accusations against Prophet TB Joshua... It stated that none of the accusations were ever verified. After leaving the church, four of the British citizens who spoke with the reporters said they reported the abuse to the UK authorities. They claim that nothing further was done.

According to Anneka, there are still a lot of victims who haven't come forward.

Furthermore, after leaving the church in March 2010, a British man and his wife emailed the British High Commission in Nigeria with eyewitness accounts of their ordeal and video evidence, including recordings of being held at gunpoint by men posing as police who are also members. The man claimed in his email that Joshua had repeatedly raped and sexually attacked his wife. He informed the commission that there were still British people inside the complex who were being brutalized.

He adds that nothing was done.

The reporters were informed by the UK Foreign Office that while it did not address these allegations, it takes all reports of criminal activity, including violence and sexual assault against British nationals abroad, extremely seriously.

With Evelyn, Joshua's widow, at the helm, is thriving even now. She conducted a trip to Spain in July 2023. At the age of 17, Anneka left Derby, UK, to join, and she told the reporters that she thought there were still a lot more victims who hadn't come out yet. She hopes that more efforts will be made to find out what Joshua did.

"I believe the Synagogue Church of All Nations needs a thorough investigation into why this man was able to function for so long the way he did," she stated.