Lagos - Nigerian preacher TB
Joshua on Thursday broke his
silence over a building collapse
that killed 80 at his Lagos
megachurch but denied lack of
cooperation and stuck to his theory of possible aerial
sabotage. The popular televangelist,
known as "The Preacher" or
"The Man of God" to his
thousands of followers in
Nigeria and around the world,
also indicated that other overseas nationals were
involved. South Africa's President Jacob
Zuma on Tuesday said that 67
of his compatriots were killed
when a guesthouse for foreign
followers of the Synagogue
Church of All Nations (SCOAN) came down last Friday.The death toll from the
tragedy climbed after 10 more
bodies were pulled from
among the twisted metal and
shattered masonry of the
building on the sprawling SCOAN compound. Joshua had not directly
commented on the deaths and
had only published Bible
quotations on his Facebook
site and Twitter account. But in a statement he
extended his sympathies to
victims' families and described
those who died as "martyrs of
the Kingdom of God". "The pain of one is the pain of
all. It is indeed a sad and
painful moment for the
families and friends of those
who have lost loved ones," he
said. "To all those who lost family
members and loved ones,
please accept our heartfelt
commiserations." Joshua said "Nigerians, South
African and citizens of other
nations were affected" but did
not specify which countries or
say whether they were among
the dead, 131 injured or both. South Africa's High
Commissioner to Nigeria, Lulu
Mnguni, said 17 of his
compatriots were
unaccounted for and the
church had set up a hotline in Johannesburg for concerned
relatives. "It (the death toll) can't all be
South Africans," he told AFP.
"There were also Nigerians
who were working." Two children were pulled alive
from the collapsed building
but both their mother and
father were among the
missing, he added. "They were under the rubble
together with their father.
Their father kept them talking
to each other," he said. Good Christians are good citizens TB Joshua inspires an almost
fanatical devotion from his
thousands of followers around
the world, who are drawn to
his services by claims of
miracle-working and prophecies. But rescue workers have
complained of a lack of
cooperation from Joshua and
the church authorities, which
included preventing the
emergency services from accessing the site until Sunday. The southwest coordinator of
the National Emergency
Management Authority (NEMA)
said SCOAN officials had not
disclosed the identities and
nationalities of those in the building at the time. Joshua rejected the lack of
cooperation claims as
"inaccurate". "Contrary to this, we want to
categorically state that the
church has provided assistance
when and where required and
continues to do so: good
Christians are good citizens," he said. Engineers have suggested that
the addition of extra floors on
top of the existing building for
foreign followers of the
Pentecostal church overloaded
the structure, causing the fatal collapse. On Wednesday, the Lagos
State government ordered
urgent structural checks of all
buildings on the SCOAN site
while NEMA said that rescue
operations could wind up on Thursday. In South Africa, Zuma rejected
criticism that his government
was slow to respond to the
tragedy. Joshua, whose followers
include heads of state and top-
level politicians such as
Malawi's former president
Joyce Banda, again suggested
that a low-flying aircraft may have been to blame. "This incident was preceded
by the appearance of a strange
aircraft which flew very low
over the building four times
and then disappeared," he
stated. "The church views this tragedy
as part of an attack on The
Synagogue Church Of All
Nations and in particular
Prophet TB Joshua. "In due course, God will reveal
the perpetrators of this
unfortunate tragedy."http://m.news24.com/nigeria/National/News/TB-Joshua-breaks-silence-after-fatal-building-collapse-20140918

described
those who died as "martyrs of
the Kingdom of God".