Jim Iyke: How desperation made me attend TB Joshua’s church in 2013

Jim Iyke, the Nollywood actor, says desperation made him seek healing for his mother from TB Joshua, the founder of Synagogue Church Of All Nations (SCOAN). 

The movie star was seen in a video undergoing deliverance at SCOAN in 2013.

Esomugha, the mother of Iyke, however, passed away on April 1, 2014.

Joshua, on the other hand, died on June 5, 2021.

In a recent interview with Teju Babyface, Iyke said several men of God “extorted money” from him over his mother’s illness, claiming she would live.

“I will never be desperate again in my life. Desperation was what took me there, to take my mother there, hoping that a man of God would heal her. If she were to live, twenty TB Joshuas would not stop her,” he said.

“It was her time, nobody would have made me enter that space, he was not the only one I went to, I have been to five or six men of God, is it because I do not want to mention names? How they drove me the money they took from me.”

The film star was said to have confessed that an evil spirit was tormenting his life during the healing session at the church.

Speaking about the issue in 2017, Iyke said he felt very bitter over the deliverance by the late clergyman.

“At that point, truthfully if they told me there would be a cure in hell, I would go,” he had said.

“I went there with my security, my sister, my PA and when we got there, there was constant insistence that I come to church that day and I said that wasn’t the arrangement.

“I said the understanding is that you lay your hands on her and she will get better and they said no, you must come to church.

“When the whole thing about touching people and they will say stuff started, I found it laughable, to be honest. And I remember my sister pinching me and telling me to stop.

“Next thing, the gentleman in question passed and I looked at him and still had the same look of amusement on my face and he touched me.

“Now I can’t explain what happened within that five minutes. I’m not here to start proferring explanations to spiritual things that is way beyond me. I’m a man and I understand the way a lot of things work but that, I cannot explain and nobody can suggest anything otherwise.

“I found it extremely embarrassing at that time. Further down the line, the reason I felt extremely bitter about it is that at the end of the day, my mom didn’t get healed. I still lost her.

“Some people even suggested that I got paid to come through that charade. I found that insulting. If they understood, they will understand that it is the love of a mother that drove me there.

“It took the birth of my son to let that issue go. For a long time, I was very bitter about it. I carried that yoke in my heart. The truth of the matter is that I was holding myself captive. Every time I saw him on TV, I would request that it should be switched off. I let it go after my son came.”