Pastor Temitope Joshua, the leader of the Synagogue Church of All
Nations (SCOAN), has repotedly joined Nigeria’s big league of miracle
and prosperity priests who own private jets.
SaharaReporters reports that,the church leader took possession of the
nearly brand-new Gulfstream G550 aircraft in April 2015, a few
months after a building collapse at the premises of his megachurch in
the Ikotun-Egbe suburb of Lagos killed 116 people. Registered
as “Synagogue Of Nations,” the jet was purchased using the Bank Of Utah
trustee as the front for purchasing the jet.
Pastor TB Joshua’s jet is the most expensive of the four owned by
Nigerian pastors.
The jet, which has US registration number N131LK, was built in 2010.
It was delivered to its first user in 2013 before making it to TB
Joshua early this year. SaharaReporters learned that the jet made a
voyage to Nigeria in December 2013, as the Bank of Utah was apparently
pitching it to Pastor TB Joshua. The man of God reportedly asked to see
it and bless it before finally taking delivery.
It could cost up to $3 million to maintain the jet annually, depending on how heavily it is used.
Sources at the church told our correspondents that Pastor Joshua claims
the jet was paid for by at least eight African Heads of State in 2014.
It was first kept in Israel before the tragic church collapse in
September in which 116 persons, mostly South Africans, were killed.
When
SaharaReporters reached Pastor Joshua, he denied owning a private jet.
Instead, he said he frequently charters private jets because he travels
extensively, noting, for instance, that he has an oncoming trip to
Argentina.
His claim runs contrary to information from the
Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), which claimed that N131LK is
on record as belonging to Pastor TB Joshua through SCOAN.
"What
the Bank of Utah does is to help non-US citizens act as agents to
purchase aircraft using US financing,” a source at NCAA told
SaharaReporters. The source recalled that the same bank was also
instrumental to purchasing jets from Bombardier on behalf of the
government of Rivers State under Governor Rotimi Amaechi, and Akwa Ibom
under Godswill Akpabio.
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