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However, the church said the photograph was taken during a peaceful nationwide prayer walk on February 2, 2020, organised following a directive by the Christian Association of Nigeria.<\/p>\n
The exercise was held to mourn Nigerians killed in various incidents and seek divine intervention over insecurity and killings across the country.\n<\/p>\n
Adeboye had previously explained that the exercise was a prayer walk and not a political protest against Jonathan, who left office in 2015.\n<\/p>\n
Speaking during the church\u2019s November Thanksgiving Service, he said the photograph had been misrepresented because its original date and circumstances were not established before it was circulated.<\/p>\n
\u201cTrue, I carried a placard. I can\u2019t deny that. It was important. It was a prayer walk. We wanted to pray,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
He also recalled that the exercise followed a directive from the leadership of CAN for churches to organise prayer walks around their premises.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cThe chairman said all churches should do a prayer walk near their churches. That\u2019s what I did,\u201d Adeboye said.\n<\/p>\n
He further questioned the failure of journalists to investigate the circumstances surrounding the photograph before publishing reports about it.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cThat things don\u2019t appear as they may seem. Investigate, if you have a story, before you take it to the press,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
In its latest statement, the RCCG said the photograph had been recycled and recaptioned to create a false impression about the cleric\u2019s position on successive administrations.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cThe image is real; the framing placed upon it is not,\u201d the church said.<\/p>\n
It added that independent fact-checkers who examined the claims also found them misleading, noting that the photograph traced to the 2020 prayer walk and that there was no evidence of the street protest it had been made to represent.\n<\/p>\n
The church said the appeal to journalists was consistent with the message of the November Thanksgiving Service, which was dedicated to members of the creative industry, including filmmakers, musicians, writers, designers and content creators.\n<\/p>\n
Adeboye urged creative professionals to use their platforms responsibly.\n<\/p>\n
He said their influence over public opinion and national conversations came with a responsibility to promote positive values.\n<\/p>\n
He charged them to tell stories that build character, promote truth and integrity, and give hope, rather than diminish society.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cIn an age when a single post can travel further than a sermon,\u201d the church said, \u201cthose who shape what Nigerians see and hear should understand that their influence is a stewardship, not merely a trade\u201d.\n<\/p>\n
The church also maintained that Adeboye had consistently spoken on national concerns, including insecurity, the sanctity of life, justice and the need for righteous leadership, through prayers, counsel and moral appeals.<\/p>\n
It said the church prayed for people in positions of authority across successive administrations but did not endorse any political party.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Redeemed Christian Church of God prays for all who hold authority, and endorses none,\u201d the statement added.\n<\/p>\n
The church urged media organisations seeking clarification on reports involving its leadership to contact its Department of Strategic Communications, saying its official channels remained open to newsrooms.\n <\/p>\n
Source: <\/p>\n
The Redeemed Christian Church of God has urged journalists and media organisations to verify photographs and establish their original contexts before publication, warning that recycled images could be used to… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6982","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6982","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6982"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6982\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6982"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6982"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6982"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}