Adeboye Breaks Silence Over Viral Placard Photo, Says It Was Prayer Walk Under Buhari, Not Protest Against Jonathan

Ayomide Awe

The General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, Pastor Enoch Adeboye, has debunked claims that he carried a placard in protest against former President Goodluck Jonathan, insisting that the widely circulated photograph was taken during a Christian prayer walk against insecurity in 2020.

Adeboye explained that the photograph, which showed him dressed in white and green while holding a placard, was taken five years after Jonathan left office and during the administration of the late former President Muhammadu Buhari.

The cleric, who spoke during the RCCG thanksgiving service on Sunday, said the event was not a political demonstration against Jonathan but a prayer walk organised in response to the country’s security challenges.

He expressed displeasure that the photograph had been circulated alongside claims suggesting that he participated in a protest against the former president, adding that the misrepresentation had shaped public perception of his actions.

According to him, many Nigerians accepted the narrative without questioning its accuracy or establishing when the photograph was taken.

Adeboye recalled that he was recently described as a wicked person by an individual who allegedly used the photograph to portray him as having protested against Jonathan.

He said, “Recently, just one mischievous somebody wrote in the papers, or said somehow, ‘Pastor Adeboye is a very wicked man. After all, we know that not too long ago, he carried a placard against President Goodluck Jonathan.’

“And everybody said yes. They brought out the picture of where I was dressed in white and green carrying a placard and everybody said see him. When I heard about it, I said, ‘Me, I carried a placard against Jonathan?’”

The RCCG leader, however, acknowledged carrying a placard, stressing that the activity had been deliberately presented as something it was not.

“True, I carried a placard. I can’t deny that. It was not a protest, it was a prayer walk. We wanted to pray.

“The CAN chairman said all churches should do a prayer walk near their churches. That’s what I did in Ebute Metta,” he said.

Adeboye further clarified that the exercise took place in 2020, when Buhari was president, whereas Jonathan’s administration ended in May 2015.

“But I carried the placard in 2020. Jonathan ceased to be president in 2015. I carried the placard five years in the second term of Buhari,” he added.

The cleric also criticised the journalist he accused of distorting the circumstances surrounding the photograph, saying the report would have been different if basic verification had been carried out before publication.

Recalling his university experience, Adeboye said he had been exposed to journalism studies and understood the importance of verifying information before publishing reports.

He alleged that the journalist changed the date and context of the prayer walk, presenting it as an event that occurred in 2015.

“A journalist twisted it. I said, I did what I did in 2015. And everybody swallowed it,” he said.

Adeboye’s clarification comes amid renewed attention to the circumstances surrounding the 2020 prayer walk, during which he led members of the RCCG in a public demonstration against insecurity in Nigeria.

The exercise was part of broader Christian concerns over worsening security challenges at the time, with religious leaders and other stakeholders increasingly demanding decisive action from the Federal Government.