Building collapse: I was the target, TB Joshua declares

•Meets with police chiefs •Strange plane hovered above building before collapse By Shola Adekola and Chukwuma Okparaocha*

HE security status of the country was, again, challenged, yesterday, following the mysterious collapse of a six-storey hotel building within the premises of the Synagogue Church of All Nations, Lagos, with the General Overseer of the church, Pastor T.B. Joshua, declaring that he was the target of the attack.

This is just as Joshua held a closed door with high ranking police chiefs and commissioners hours after the building collapse, which left 16 people dead and several others injured.

Though the details of the closed door meeting was not known as at the time of writing this report, Sunday Tribune gathered that it might not be unconnected with the sad incident.

SCOAN’s Public Relations Adviser, Mr Iwelunmor Patrick, had confirmed to Sunday Tribune the meeting held  at the church premises but volunteered no further information.

“The G.O. is in a meeting with some top police officers, so the press conference earlier scheduled for today will no longer hold. Another (press conference) could be arranged for tomorrow (Sunday), but I’ll let you know,” he said.

As at 3.00pm on Saturday, 118 people were rescued alive by the Lagos State Emergency Agency in conjunction with the church members.

In a video footage captured by a Closed Circuit Television system within the Ikotun premises of the church, shown to journalists, on Saturday, a strange plane was seen hovering over the collapsed building for about 30 minutes in an unusual manner before the building went down like a pack of card.

Pastor Joshua noted that while he was praying in another building within the church, he got a call informing him of a strange plane hovering over the premises and left the praying room, stating that as he stepped out, he got a second alert of the plane hovering over the hotel meant for mostly foreign members before the building collapsed.

In the footage, the plane hovered four times between 11: 30am and 12.45 pm after which the building went down.

Joshua said everything showed that he was a target of the attack, saying that he was praying when he and others noticed the ‘unusual’ hovering of the light plane which made the church to inform security operatives of the unusual aircraft movement.

Indication that the church might have been targeted in an attack of a sort became obvious as the plane hovered around through an illegal flight path.

Joshua who said people might not believe him now but declared “that the truth will be revealed in the next three days,” in a brief chat with some journalists in the church premises on Saturday, said he could not specifically lay claim to the cause of  the sad development.

*Source tribune.com