Temitope Balogun Joshua, a frontline Nigerian preacher and televangelist, has died, family sources told Niger Delta Connect.
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Mr Joshua, the founder of The Synagogue, Church Of All Nations (SCOAN), died in Lagos on Saturday evening shortly after concluding a programme at his church, globalvoice gathered from family sources, who did not want to be quoted as an official statement was still being prepared. He sleeps at the age of 57.
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The cause of his death was not immediately disclosed but family sources said his remains had been deposited at the morgue and an autopsy would be performed forthwith.
In 2008, he was awarded the Officer of the Order of the Federal Republic (OFR) by the Nigerian government.
He was voted the Yoruba man of the decade by Pan-Yoruba media outlet Irohin-Odua.
According to Forbes, Joshua was Nigeria’s third-richest pastor and among the top 10 richest in the world.
Popular as he was, he was also known to be controversial, and was even ‘blacklisted’ by the government of Cameroon in 2010.
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He did not get along well with several Nigerian pastors. He was publicly criticised and condemned within Nigeria.
Pastor Chris Okotie even called him a ‘son of the devil’. The umbrella Christian body in Nigeria, the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) said he was not their member.
