Following the September 12, 2014 collapse of building belonging to the Synagogue Church of All Nations (SCOAN), indications have emerged that this is not the first time that a building belonging to the church has collapsed.
According to the SCOAN official website, the first church building roof was blown off by a storm, the second was washed away by a storm while the third church building collapsed due to “severe weather conditions”.
The website then goes on to describe the fourth and present church building as an architectural masterpiece. Then, it implies that God always has something to do with each of the building disasters.
“Shall we say all these happened without God’s knowledge? No. In every situation, God is still saying something.”
Temitope Balogun Joshua, known as TB Joshua founded the church with seven members ”many years ago”, according to the church’s website. The first meeting was in a shanty on Ajisegiri Street close to a swamp in the Agodo-Egbe area of Lagos State. He later moved his church to Ikotun Egbe where the second, third, and fourth church building were built.
Following the latest disaster, which has claimed more than 60 lives, TB Joshua released a video on Sunday showing an alleged CCTV camera footage of an airplane circling the building just before the building collapse. He blamed the collapse of the building as the work of enemies of the church and said it was an “attack” and alluded to an old threat from Islamist terrorist group, Boko Haram. The founder and leader of the church, which runs a Christian TV called Emmanuel TV, said that the “attack” was aimed at killing him.
The building was being used as a guest house for visitors to the church and was reportedly a two-storey building which had been rebuilt into a six-storey building.
Lagos state government has said through its commissioner for physical planning, Toyin Ayinde, that the building did not have government approval and there was no permit from the authorities.
The South African government says 67 of its citizens perished in the disaster.
