Nigerian preacher Temitope Balogun Joshua of the Synagogue Church of All Nations (SCOAN), sparked outrage when he donated 30,000 bags of rice to the Lagos State Police Command police officers.
Countless officers rejected the bags which they viewed as a form of bribery since they came at a time when Joshua faces arrest for defying court orders concerning his building collapse which killed 116 souls last September. Joshua’s own architectural Town Planner has testified before the courts that Joshua’s building did not have planning approval.
A journalist who was at the command headquarters in Ikeja on Monday, observed that some officers assigned the duty of distributing the half bag of rice to their colleague,s were busy at their duty post.
Numerous officers in Lagos rejected the TB Joshua bags of rice saying they were a filthy donation.
The bags of rice bore the inscription: “Emmanuel TV” bodily printed on them.
It was however observed that other police patrol vehicles in Lagos lined up at the command to load their share of the bags of rice for their officers.
For instance, a police patrol vehicle from the command transport unit at Ikeja, fully loaded with bags of rice was seen driving out of the main gate of the command.
The church building collapsed in circumstances in September this year where some 116 persons, mostly from South Africa, died.
Ever since then, the man from the Synagogue Church has been involving a running legal battle with all the stakeholders involved in the issues of collapsed buildings within and outside Lagos on the causes of the collapse.