UK envoy lambasts TB Joshua over AirAsia crash prophesy

The founder of the Synagogue Church of all Nations, Prophet Temitope Joshua, has claimed that he saw a vision of the disappearance of a Singapore-bound AirAsia plane days before the incident.

The AirAsia Flight QZ8501, which had 16 children and 146 other passengers and crew members on board, was said to have disappeared from the radar in Surabaya, Indonesia on Sunday.

Following the disappearance of the passenger plane, SCOAN released a video on its YouTube page, in which TB Joshua accused Indonesia of failing to heed its earlier warning.

“I have a message for the nation, Indonesia. This country, Indonesia – I don’t know what is happening. They should pray for Indonesia. That is, the nation Indonesia. When it comes to this disaster issue, I don’t want to mention it. It looks so nasty to me to mention – a situation where it will cost a lot of lives, suddenly.

 “This is a crash. Why should this continue to happen there? I think there is a nature – a geographical atmosphere. There is something there that they should look into,” TB Joshua stated in the video sermon which the church claimed had been shot days before the plane’s disappearance.

The church added that on its YouTube page that in spite of the Indonesia’s failure to look into the “geographical atmosphere,” TB Joshua and his followers had begun praying “that God would strengthen the family members and friends of all those involved in this tragic incident.”

But the British High Commissioner to Ghana, Jon Benjamin, urged the general public to dismiss TB Joshua’s claims.

“But he couldn’t prophecy his own church collapsing, killing over 100?” Benjamin, a British foreign service officer of 28 years, who has simultaneous diplomatic accreditationto Togo, Benin and Burkina Faso, said via his Twitter page.

Apart from the UK diplomat who carpeted TB Johsua over his claims, an online outrage trailed his prophesy.

A Black Briton, based in Croydon, United Kingdom, Melody Badza-Chinouriri, lambasted for claiming to have foretold the air disaster.

Badza-Chinourir said, “I will never run to a man who does not even own up to the disaster he failed to avert at his backyard. He even blatantly refused to attend the coroner inquest despite repeated invitations. No accountability whatsoever.

“I hope Nigeria will wake up and arrest him this time round. He is putting that country on the spot for wrong reasons. Let him prophesy all the killings happening in Nigeria. Many people have died in Nigeria than Indonesia. You have a prophet; why are you perishing then in Nigeria?”

A respondent on Lawyer Omegad queried the credibility of the said video, adding that TB Joshua’s controversial prophecies were useless as they had over the years failed to redeem lives.

“How come we are only seeing this so-called prophesy today? It’s obvious the video was posted many hours after the plane has already gone missing. I doubt this because God revels to redeem,” Omegad said.

Another online activist, Emeka Martins, said, “Indeed most Nigerians are gullible. Why should they believe in prophesies of end-time fake pastors. TB Joshua should explain to the court what led to the death of those people in his synagogue. Why did he not prophesy his own calamity?”

While other online commentators taunted the clergyman strings of prophecies, some Nigerians challenged him to foretell the day in which the abducted Chibok girls would be freed by the fundamentalist Islamist sect, Boko Haram.

“We don’t want to know which disaster is next, we want a prayer that will bring the Chibok girls back home,” a respondent, Samuel David, wrote on SCOAN’s YouTube page.

However, TB Joshua’s followers rallied round him, fending off criticisms of what they described as his divine calling.

A Malawian, Elsie PembeKumwenda, insisted on Facebook that the cleric is God sent, saying, “Prophet TB Joshua is doing what no one can do today. Whatever he prophesises comes to pass, yet we don’t believe him. We usually regret our actions when it (tragedy) happens. May God give our prophet more of his grace.”

 Punch report