Ebola: Stay in your country, TB Joshua tells victims

Founder of  Synagogue Church of All Nations, Pastor Temitope Joshua, who was recently visited by a team of Nigerian  health authorities over the spread of the deadly Ebola disease, has directed victims to stay in their countries.

As part of on-going efforts to prevent spread of the dreaded Ebola Virus Disease, EVD, into the country, a team of Federal and Lagos State Health officials, had visited Joshua, to sensitise members of the congregation about persons from the affected countries in their midst.

Speaking on the deadly disease, Joshua said, “What makes you a good citizen makes you a good Christian. There is a general law in every country that binds against Ebola victims from crossing borders,” Mr. Joshua announced on the church’s official website and Facebook page.

“Obey the law of your land and it shall be well with you. Obey the law of the land by not crossing the borders of your nation with Ebola virus,” he added.

Jide Idris, the Lagos State Commissioner of Health, who led Idris, in his address during interaction at the premises of the Church, said he visited the Church because of its recognition as an international Christian centre whose congregation comprise people from all over the world including the countries of the West African sub-region which have already been affected by the Ebola disease.

He said,“The visit is one of the Government’s strategies of sensitising faith-based organisations on the need to cooperate with the government to prevent the spread of the disease in the country by educating their adherents to escalate health issues to medical experts.

Spread of the virus

“Federal and the State governments are working hard on how to prevent a spread of the virus into the country. The delegation felt that because the church has some people from the West African sub-region as members and because of the influx and population of the congregation there might be need to check and also raise the awareness level on the disease in the church.

“We have our strategies that we intend to share with you. Again we need to know the resources you have here because whether it is one or two cases, if they are allowed to get out, it is a major problem. We are here to work together on how to contain this disease.

Director, Nigeria Centre for Disease Control, NCDC, Professor Abdulsalami Nasidi, ön the mission, noted that the visit was also to inform the Synagogue leader of the deadliness of the Ebola Virus and to ensure it does not find its way into the country.

Mr. Joshua, the General Overseer of the Lagos-based church, is controversial for his claims of using divine powers to heal all kinds of ailments, prompting sick people from across Africa and the world to regularly throng his church.

The Nigerian Minister of Health, Onyebuchi Chukwu, on Monday said that a medical doctor in Lagos has been infected with the deadly Ebola virus.

The unnamed doctor marks the second case of confirmed Ebola infection in Lagos after Patrick Sawyer, a Liberian, contracted and died of the ailment last month.

According to the Prof. Chukwu, 70 other people believed to have come into contact with the Liberian were being monitored.

Of the eight people now in quarantine, three show “symptomatic” signs of the disease, the health minister said.