TB Joshua’s Burial: Lagos Inspects Church Facilities

Segun James

In anticipation of a massive crowd at the burial ceremony of the late Founder of the Synagogue Church of All Nation (SCOAN), Prophet Temitope Joshua, next Friday, a delegation from the Lagos State Government led by the state Commissioner for Health, Prof. Akin Abayomi, and the Director-General of the state Safety Commission, Mr. Lanre Mojola, has visited the Synagogue Church to inspect facilities at there for COVID-19 safety and prevention protocols compliance as part of the preparation for the funeral.

Speaking after the inspection of the church facilities and meeting with the church officials, Abayomi said the inspection was in line with the third wave mitigation strategy of the state government to prevent the importation and spread of new deadly strains of the virus in Lagos and Nigeria in general.

While noting that the late prophet was a prominent person with large congregation and followers from around the world, the commissioner said the funeral rites would expectedly attract people from within and outside Nigeria, who will deem it fit to come to pay their last respect to the clergyman.

He explained that the state government considered the funeral activities at SCOAN as an important event enough to ensure strict compliance to COVID-19 safety protocols to prevent the importation, transmission or spread of the newly deadly strains of the virus to the state and country.

Abayomi added that the inspection and meeting with officials of SCOAN were at the behest of the state Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, who directed that SCOAN be given all the support required to host the funeral programme for it late founder under strict COVID-19 prevention protocol to limit any possibility of introduction foreign variants among the congregation and by extension to the community.

He said: “On behalf of the Lagos State Government, we want to offer our deep condolences to the family of the prophet and members of the congregation. In these very precarious times that we are in, with a global pandemic that is evolving dynamically, what we now know is that there are different strains of the virus circulating around the world, and Lagos State has a very strong third wave prevention strategy.

“The likely cause of a third wave is going to be an importation from visitors who are infected with the virus, so we are particularly careful about working with the Synagogue Church to make sure that we have a collaboration that will reduce the opportunity to zero of us either importing a virus or even allowing someone who is positive to interact with the community.

“So we have had series of engagements with the officials and executive of SCOAN, we are also in touch with the federal government, the Presidential Steering Committee, and the Federal Ministry of Health.

“And the Incident Commander, who is the state governor, has stated that this is a priority event, and we have to ensure that we give SCOAN all the support it requires to make sure that the series of planned events for the funeral scheduled between July 5 and 11, 2021, are performed under strict guidelines to limit any possibilities of introduction of foreign COVID-19 variants among the congregation or the movement of the virus in such an environment that would make transmission easier.”