On Sunday, Pastor T.B. Joshua, received 39 of the 172 Nigerians deported from Libya last Friday. According to a post on the church’s official Facebook page, the deportees were each given the sum of N100,000. Majority of them were working as bricklayers in Libya. Fidelis Onos, who spoke on behalf of the group, said that most of them had been imprisoned for up to one year in Libya. He said:
“We are not here to blame Libya. If Nigeria was okay, we would never have left in the first place. It’s the war in Libya that turned it to what it is today.”
Arriving in Lagos with only the clothes they came with, they were provided with N6,500. Frustrated, angry and despondent, a group of them decided to seek refuge at The SCOAN, having watched Emmanuel TV in Libya. Upon learning of their arrival in the church, Prophet T.B. Joshua immediately sent evangelists to provide food, alongside medical aid to some of the most malnourished in their midst.
One of the beneficiaries, Godspower Chibuike, later said: “If not for a man like T.B. Joshua, most of us would have ended up going into armed robbery, kidnapping or even joining a group like Boko Haram.” Another deportee said he had never seen such an amount of money in his life.