TB Joshua Is Conman

Bishop Addae-Mensah and TB Joshua

Bishop Matthew Addae-Mensah, General Overseer of the Gospel Light International Church, headquartered in Accra, has warned that Nigeria's controversial Prophet, T.B. Joshua, is a master conman who is scheming to impose himself on Ghana, and would turn the country's blessings into curses if he is not told a piece or two.

Bishop Addae-Mensah's warning is in response to claims by T.B. Joshua that he is the brain behind Ghana's victory over Brazil in last Friday's final of the U-20 World Cup in Egypt.

According to Addae-Mensah, if T.B. Joshua is allowed to take credit for the victory, Ghana would not only incur the wrath of God, this could also potentially ruin the profession of the Ghanaian coach and make the players look like idiots.

Quite embarrassingly, other claims by TB Joshua that he spoke on phone to Captain of the Satellites, Andrea Dede Ayew, on the field of play during the final match of the U-20 World Cup and that he also met the Black Satellites Coach, Sellas Tetteh, in Nigeria, have been denied by both the captain and coach.

While Dede Ayew denied ever talking to TB Joshua on the said date and time, Coach Tetteh refuted ever meeting the Prophet in Nigeria.

Speaking exclusively to DAILY GUIDE on Wednesday, Bishop Addae-Mensah said it is improper for any Man of God to take credit for the victory of the U-20 team simply because that Man of God claims he said some prayers and spoke to the coach on the field of play.

“TB Joshua is not the only Man of God who prayed, we all did and many Ghanaians and Africans the world over were indeed praying for the team.

Several pastors had rightly predicted the outcome of the match but we all give the glory to God and credit to the coach and players. We do not invite journalists to take the glory and put videos on the internet to glorify ourselves because taking the glory from God would transform our blessing into a curse.

“In Malachi 2 Vs 1 to 2, God stated categorically: 'If ye will not hear, and if ye will not lay it to heart, to give glory unto my name, saith the LORD of hosts, I will even send a curse upon you, and I will curse your blessings: yea, I have cursed them already, because ye do not lay it to heart,' and what TB Joshua is doing is simply taking the glory from God and the credit from the coach and players; that is something that would invite the curse of God on the nation and someone needs to point that out to him.

“This man is a conman who knows how to manipulate situations to his advantage and he has some media experts all around him who work to make him look good but that is his business as long as he does not impose himself on Ghana as he has started to do. If he is so patriotic, what prevented him from getting the World Cup for his country?

If God has been kind to us, TB Joshua should stop taking the glory,” Addae-Mensah emphasised.

The Gospel Light leader said he has no problem if President Atta Mills chose the Nigerian Prophet as his spiritual leader or god father, but that does not give TB Joshua the right to meddle in Ghana's national affairs and parade himself as a national prophet.

“We would not allow that to happen and our President better watches out before this man deceives him into sending Ghana the wrong way.

I am surprised because I know many men of God in this country who are consulted by other African leaders and presidents from other continents but we do not go out there to say everything.”

He noted that Prophet Joshua is steadily, but successfully, scheming to impose himself as a 'national Prophet' for Ghana though no one has ordained him as such.

Interestingly, the 46-year-old multi-billionaire Prophet Joshua has come under severe criticism from a number of leading Pentecostal and Evangelical pastors in Nigeria who have openly accused him of being a Christian witch-doctor and an occultist trying to masquerade as a Pentecostal preacher.

Bishop Mike Okonkwo, head of the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria (PFN), is on record as having denounced T.B. Joshua, describing the latter as an imposter.

He said PFN over the years has warned of the “dangers of infiltrators who have modernized cultism by injecting the name of Jesus Christ into their largely unbiblical practices”.

Another Pentecostal leader, Christopher Okotie of the Household of God Ministries, is also on record as having called T.B. Joshua's church an anti-Christ cult.

Head of the 26,000-member Word of Life Bible Church in Warri, Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor, has also questioned the genuineness of T.B. Joshua's miracles.

By Halifax Ansah-Addo