Prophet T. B. Joshua, founder and general overseer of the Synagogue Church of All Nations, has said that Boko Haram may be responsible for the collapse of a six-story building in the church premises, which killed more than 40 people and wounded scores last Friday.
Lagos state Commissioner for Physical planning, however said that the building had no government approval for its construction.
This is coming as the Nigerian Air Force declared its Alpha jet on an operation against the militant Islamic sect, missing.
There were speculations that the jet might have either been hijacked or shot down by the insurgents.
Joshua however, told members of his church on Sunday that the attack at his church was targeted at him and not at them.
He used footages on the Emmanuel TV to explain the events shortly before and after the accident as captured by the church’s CCTV.
“I received a phone call immediately I got here, just 10 minutes later when I was in the church, that there was a jet hovering over the mountain where I had just left. They said it was hovering at a close range. Before I knew it, I received another phone call that the same jet was now at the church hovering over the building, passing it four times at a very close range before the building collapsed.” The preacher claimed.
Joshua read to the church a letter which he said was addressed to him by a Boko Haram member, confessing how he had attempted to plant a bomb inside the church.
Joshua said his church was being attacked to scare away members.
“This environment at Ikotun Egbe, we have never witnessed an accident of a building collapse. This is a very stable terrain. I have been here for the past 30 years. I am pregnant with words, but we have left the security agencies to do their job. Let us believe and educate our people and be alive.”
Assuring his congregation that God would bring the perpetrators of the attack to book, Joshua said that the decision of the insurgents to focus on his church might be the end of the Boko Haram’s activities in the country.
But Mr Toyin Ayinde, Lagos state commissioner for Physical planning, said that records in his office shows that no permit was handed to the civil engineers for the building to be erected
He said he was awaiting the church engineers to present the building permit they were given to erect the collapsed building.
Meanwhile, Maj.-Gen. Chris Olukolade, director of Defence Information, has said that an Air Force jet, marked NAF 466, disappeared from the radar on Friday.
Olukolade explained that the plane with only two crew members on board “left Yola at about 10:45am on September12, 2014 on a routine operational mission and was expected back by 12 noon same day.
“Since then, all efforts to establish contact with the aircraft have not yielded any positive result.”
He however stated that search and rescue efforts were ongoing to establish contact with the crew
It was, however, gathered that the defence authorities had reached out to neighbouring countries like Cameroun, Niger and Chad, for any information that could lead to the whereabouts of the jet.