Claim
A Pastor has been seen in a live streamed video, carrying out a bizzare crossover ritual for his female church members. The Pastor was seen asking his church members to hurry up and come for the “holy bath”. The church members stripped naked and were seen tying towels while being rubbed olive oil by another Pastor after the bath.
Source of Claim – Blogs, Facebook, Youtube, and WhatsApp
LindaIkejisBlog, a popular blog run by Linda Ikeji reported the video as authentic news. The video has also been shared on many social media platforms with many expressing disgust and anger at the pastor, congregation and Christianity.
Ground zero of Claim
HitzGh TV appears to be the origin of the misinformation. Blinks TV had posted the original video about 24hrs to this factcheck. HitzGh TV however presented it as genuine news when Blinks TV clearly portrayed the video as a skit.
Fact
The supposed pastor is not a pastor but a Nana Mensah – a movie director.
On his Youtube channel which is named – Blinks TV – he currently has about 95 videos that includes the making of the skits where he acts as a pastor.
Nana Mensah had also come out after outcry against previous videos he made to let the people know that he is not a pastor and he only acts those skits to sensitize people against fake pastors.
Proof
Adomonline.com reported in December 2019 that Nana Mensah was no pastor.
Excerpts of their report state that, “Blinks – Mensah, the ‘pastor’ who ordered his congregation to drink water he had dipped his body into has publicly spoken for the first time since the video of the act went viral. For the first time, Blinks has explained that the video was staged or acted.Speaking on Accra-based Okay FM, Blinks revealed the video which circulated on social media was an excerpt of his series titled Pastor Blinks, which is yet to be aired.”
Globecalls.com also reported in October 2020 that Nana Mensah was a movie director who only acts skits to educate the people about fake pastors who go about duping people.
The headline and excerpts from their website –
“Movie director and producer Nana Mensah, the man behind ‘ Pastor Blinks ‘ movie speaks after his latest episode got misinterpreted
After the viral video of a pastor shaving the pubic of her female church members, social media has gone wild in search for the man behind the acts only to realized that the scene was a for a movie.
The Pastor in the acts Nana Mensah who is a movie director reveals to a source that the movie was meant to educate the masses about the tricks of fake pastors who goes around duping their victims in the name of miracles”
Analysis
HitzGh TV appears to be the origin of the misinformation. They posted the video and insinuated it was authentic. This was picked up by blogs like LindaIkejisBlog and other blogs began reporting it as true based on this cascading error.
Conclusion
The video does not show an actual Pastor bathing for women, it is a skit that was misrepresented due to lack of basic checks by some blogs.
