A UK-based media organisation, openDemocracy, has claimed responsibility for the sudden closure of Pastor TB Joshua’s popular YouTube Channel Emmanuel TV, which had over 1.8 million subscribers and 600 million views.

Pastor Joshua, Founder of The Synagogue Church of All Nations, with headquarters in Lagos, Nigeria, announced the ban of the YouTube page of the church’s TV.

In an article published on its website, titled: “YouTube closes African channel promoting televangelist’s violent conversion therapy,” Kerry Cullinan explained how the American video-sharing site terminated Emmanuel TV “in response to our enquiries about TB Joshua’s controversial exorcisms”.

According to the report, the channel posted at least seven clips showing “the charismatic Christian televangelist engaging in exorcism to ‘cure’ gay and lesbian congregants of their sexual orientation by casting out ‘the demon of homosexuality’.”

Cullinan, however, acknowledged that after the Nigerian cleric’s prayers, the individuals concerned all testified that they no longer experienced same-sex attraction.

“YouTube’s Community Guidelines prohibit hate speech and we remove flagged videos and comments that violate these policies. In this case we have terminated the channel,” a YouTube spokesperson told openDemocracy after they reported Joshua to the social media giant.

In his statement announcing the suspension, Joshua refuted the allegations of “Hate Speech”.

He wrote on Twitter: Our mission is to share the love of God with everyone – irrespective of race or religion – and we strongly oppose all forms of hate speech.”

In the description of the video which triggered the suspension, the cleric stated: “God hates sin, not sinners. When the Bible says, ‘Do not judge so that you will not be judged’, it means we should hate sin, not the sinner because sinners can change… We should hate the act, not the people because our battle is not against flesh and blood but against the ‘spirit beings’ that cause all these acts.”

The announcement of Emmanuel TV’s removal has continued to elicit backlash from the pastor’s teeming supporters who have taken to social media to vent their indignation.

“How can praying for someone who freely came to your church to ask for God’s help with same-sex attraction now be classified as ‘Hate Speech’?” fumed Jennifer Ayre in a comment on Joshua’s official Facebook Page. “This is an affront to Christians worldwide!”

“I think it’s because YouTube is not making any money from Emmanuel TV because it’s the largest channel which doesn’t monetise its content,” asserted Hakeem Oladiran, referring to Joshua’s stance to not allow adverts on his clips, promote merchandise or engage in fund-raising campaigns.

“They can suspend the YouTube channel but they cannot suspend the truth,” tweeted Adey Henrietta, calling on Emmanuel TV to launch its own social media platform instead.

For two days, YouTube’s official Facebook Page has been inundated with requests to restore the popular Christian channel and complaints about the suspension.

openDemocracy, which describes itself as an “independent global media organisation” whose projects include championing “women’s and LGBTIQ voices”, also revealed they reported Joshua’s activities to Facebook and DStv, which hosts Emmanuel TV on satellite in Africa.

Joshua’s Facebook Page, which has over 5.6 million followers, remains active although the company stated certain videos had been removed after openDemocracy’s queries.

. Ihechuwku Njoku, a freelancer, shared this with The Eagle Online.

The Leader of INRI Evangelical Spiritual Church, Primate Elijah Ayodele, has released new prophecies on the state of insecurity in Nigeria, and briefly spoke about the 2023 general election.

The new prophesies by the man of God was revealed in a statement released by his Media Office on Thursday.

Ayodele made it known that he foresees Nigeria going into a state of anarchy with the way insecurity is being handled in the country.

He made it known that the Service Chiefs needed to seek for divine intervention to solve insecurity problems, advising that all security parastatals work together to battle insecurity before it finally gets out of hand.

He said: “The security state of Nigeria is disturbing.

“It needs divine intervention.

“The IG and Service Chiefs should wake up.

“It will become unbearable.

“We need to pray for Villa against mourning as a result of insecurity.

“This security matter will discredit all Service Chiefs if care isn’t taken.

“I foresee this resulting into a state of anarchy before 2023 and it will cause misfortune in 2023.

“The politicians should wake up on this because there will be political tension, kidnapping, assassination.

“We have to be careful.

“Bomb scare in major cities in Nigeria.

“We need to be watchful of gunshot on top personalities.

“Governors convoys will be attacked too.

“No politician will be safe anymore regardless of their security details.”

Ayodele also revealed that the insecurity will begin to spread to some neighbouring countries, while explaining that all the leaders needed to work together to avert this.

He revealed: “The neighbouring countries like Chad, Togo, Benin Republic, Niger Republic should wake up because there is more challenges from terrorism coming.

“These leaders should listen and take bold steps before it gets out of hand.

“I see security calamity that will affect all the states in Nigeria.

“All security operatives should work together.

“Attacks will be directed at sensitive places.”

Continuing, the man of God spoke about the 2023 general election, stating that if Nigeria wants to hold the polls, there is the need to seek the face of God.

Ayodele said he foresees that there will be the need to change dates at different times due to insecurity.

He also revealed that ahead of 2023, the Peoples Democratic Party will lose two serving governors to the All Progressives Congress.

He also gave a message about the reconciliation committees of the two parties and advising them about the election.

He said: “If we want to do election in 2023, we need to seek divine intervention because there will be so much of insecurity before the election, which will make the government to postpone the date of election at different times.

:APC reconciliation committee led by Yobe Governor will suffer gang up.

“I advice APC not to do their convention when they want to do it to avoid confusion and many troubles.

“Some will be bringing setback for the chairman.

“Muslim-Muslim ticket in APC is as good as total failure.

“If they try it, they will fail in 2023.

“They should be careful so the party will not break by the end of this year.

“If PDP can work with (Dr. Abubakar Bukola) Saraki, they will get the best ahead of 2023.

“The party will lose two governors who are moles in the party.

“They should put efforts to achieve the best.”

The internally generated revenue (IGR) recorded by Lagos state in 2020 is higher than 28 other states combined.

This is despite lockdown measures imposed in the state due to COVID-19.

According to the 2020 IGR report released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on Friday, Lagos generated a total of N418.98 billion, representing 32.08 percent of N1.3 trillion — total IGR generated by states and the federal capital territory (FCT).

The total amount of N1.3 trillion is lower by 1.93 percent compared to figures for 2019.

TheCable compiled data on IGR recorded by 28 other states and found Lagos outstripping their combined figures.

The states include; Anambra, Edo, Ondo, Enugu, Osun, Kwara, Plateau, Zamfara, Kogi, Imo, Cross River, Abia, Kebbi and Ebonyi.

Others are Bauchi, Nasarawa, Bayelsa, Sokoto, Borno, Katsina, Niger, Benue, Ekiti, Jigawa, Gombe, Adamawa, Taraba, and Yobe.

The 28 states recorded a total of N416.02 billion, a figure lower than N418.98 billion generated in Lagos only.

In 2020, Lagos, Nigeria’s commercial city, was placed on lockdown for several weeks due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Businesses were shut, relaxation centres were closed and movement across the state was restricted in a bid to curb the virus.

Airports in the state were also shut for several weeks leading to increased loss of revenue.

According to the report, Lagos, Rivers (N117.18 billion), and the FCT (N92.05 billion), topped states with highest IGR in 2020.

They are followed by Delta, Kaduna, Ogun, and Oyo as fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh respectively.

Yobe (N7.77 billion), Taraba (N8.11 billion) and Adamawa (N8.32 billion) are three states with the lowest IGR in 2020.

The report noted that Kebbi, Ebonyi and Oyo had the highest growth rate in the year under review. (The Cable)

The Federal Government has approved the activation of new SIM card registration with mandatory National Identity Number linking, starting from April 19, 2021.

This was disclosed in a statement signed on Thursday by the Technical Assistant (Information Technology) to the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr Femi Adeluyi.

According to him, in line with the Nigerian Communications Act 2003, Section 23(a), the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr Isa Pantami, coordinated and led the development of a revised National Digital Identity Policy for SIM card registration in collaboration with all other stakeholders.

He noted that the key aspects of the draft policy were presented to the stakeholders at the 4th review meeting of the Ministerial Task Force on the NIN-SIM registration which held in February.

Dr Pantami also presented the revised policy to President Muhammadu Buhari, on March 26, and the final amendments were completed Wednesday with further improvements and endorsed by the President.

The policy includes guidelines on new SIM acquisition and activation, SIM replacement, New SIM activation for corporates and Internet-of-Things/Machine-to-Machine, amongst others.

For the corporate registration, institutions would be required to appoint a Telecoms Master (at the minimum of an Executive Management level) to provide the operational Primary NIN representation.

The Telecoms Master would also be responsible to ensuring that the users provide their NINs to serve as a secondary NIN, according to the statement.

The statement said, “For IoT/M2M activations, SIM security protocols would be implemented on the SIM profile to ensure that SIMs can only be used for point to point data services specific to the URL they are working with. All other services will be barred.

“In the event that a data only service is particular to individual use (eg home car tracking, WiFi, MiFi services, etc), the standard NIN registration process will be followed. A Telecoms Master will also be required for Corporates requiring IoT/M2M activations.”

Speaking on the NIN registration progress, Adeluyi said the biometric verification process had been slower than anticipated, owing largely to the non-adherence of many previous SIM biometric capture processes to the National Identity Management Commission standards.

He added that the revised policy would ensure that operators conform to the required standards for biometric capture.

He stated, “The implementation of the policy will commence on Monday, 19th of April 2021. The issuance of new SIMs and other suspended activities will resume on the same date, as long as verification is done and the guidelines are fully adhered to.

“The minister has also directed Nigerian Communications Commission and NIMC to ensure that the provisions of the policy are strictly followed by all operators and subscribers.”

Citizens and legal residents were encouraged to bear with the government as the process had been developed in the best interest of the country.

Ghanaian actress, Akuapem Poloo real name Rosemond Brown has been sentenced to three months in prison by an Accra Circuit Court over the publication of obscene material and domestic violence.

The court also revealed that her pregnancy claim is false after she was tested.

As the court sentenced her to 90 days in jail on Friday, the actress pleaded for mercy, to no avail.

Akuapem’s lawyer, Mr Andy Vortia, urged for a more lenient sentence but the court held that a harsh sentence must be passed to serve as a stern warning to others.

The actress was convicted on her own plea after she had pleaded guilty to three counts of publication of obscene materials; engaging in domestic violence namely; conduct that in any way undermined another person’s privacy or integrity, and engaging in domestic violence, namely conduct that in any way detracted or was likely to detract from another person’s dignity and worth as a human being.

No fewer than 263 properties have been marked for demolition in Lagos as Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu inaugurated the groundbreaking ceremony of the 37-kilometre Lagos Rail Mass Transit, also known as the Red Line project.

The affected properties are located in Iju, Agege, Ikeja, Mushin, Yaba and Oyingbo.

The governor disclosed that the affected properties are 263 in number, comprising 2,341 tenants/business owners.

He added that the affected people have been identified and their properties have been evaluated and compensation are being paid.

The flag off ceremony of the project which took place in Ikeja also witnessed the presentation of cheques to some the property owners and tenants affected by the projects in the mentioned area.

The standard gauge Red Line, which would share tracks with the Lagos-Ibadan Railway Modernisation Project, is divided into two phases.

The 37-kilometre rail road with 12 proposed stations has the first phase to cover Oyingbo to Agbado with nine stations.

According to the governor, ‘three of the stations will be constructed with the Lagos-Ibadan Railway Modernisation Project by the federal government at Agbado, Agege and Ebute Metta Junction. The remaining six would be constructed as independent stations at Iju, Ikeja, Oshodi, Mushin Yaba and Oyingbo.

‘The phase two which would be mostly elevated would have stations at Iddo and Ebute-Ero before terminating at Marina where a huge interchange is planned to manage commuters on the Red, Green and Blue Rail lines, BRT buses and those using the waterways,’ he said.

‘Some of the unique characteristics of the Red Line is its integration with the Ikeja Bus Terminal, Oshodi – Abule-Egba Bus Rapid Transit, the future Orange Line, which goes from Ikeja to Agbowa, and the General Aviation Terminal One of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport through a skywalk. This particular station which has been appropriately named Ikeja Train Centre also has facilities for park and ride and commercial spaces. Also, the Oshodi Train Station will integrate with the Oshodi Bus Terminal and provision for adequate park and ride services and commercial spaces.’

President Muhammadu Buhari, on Thursday, returned to Abuja after a successful medical check-up in the United Kingdom.

The presidential aircraft conveying the president and some aides landed at the Presidential Wing of the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja about 4.45 p.m.

Those at the airport to welcome the president included the Chief of Staff to the President, Prof. Ibrahim Gambari, the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Malam Muhammed Bello, and the National Security Adviser to the President, retired Maj.-Gen. Babagana Monguno.

Others were the service chiefs, acting Inspector General of Police, Usman Baba, the Director-General, National Intelligence Agency (NIA), Ahmed Rufa’i, the Director General of the Department of State Services, Yusuf Bichi and other presidential aides.

The president, after a brief welcoming ceremony at the airport, boarded a presidential helicopter that conveyed him to the Presidential Villa.

Buhari had on March 30 departed Abuja for London, United Kingdom, for a routine medical check-up.

Uwemedimo Nwoko, a former Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, Akwa Ibom State, has been arrested.

He was arrested by operatives of the Uyo Zonal Office of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.

Nwoko, an alleged accomplice in the N1.4bn money laundering charge against Paul Usoro, a former President of the Nigerian Bar Association had been at large for over two years.

A source said the suspect was finally nabbed in Uyo on Tuesday for his role in the conversion of N1.410bn property of the Government of Akwa Ibom State.

The EFCC spokesperson, Wilson Uwujaren, confirmed the arrest, adding that he would be charged to court as soon as investigations were concluded.

Meanwhile, a former governor of Imo State and Senator representing Imo West Senatorial District at the National Assembly, Senator Rochas Okorocha, who was arrested on Tuesday for alleged N7.9bn money laundering is still in custody.

Our correspondent learnt that the lawmaker was still being grilled by investigators as the time of filling in this report.