In Africa'slargest metropolis, the district of Ikotun Egbe has turned into a boom town. The draw? Temitope Balogun Joshua, one of Nigeria's richest "super-pastors", whose church attracts 50,000 worshipers weekly – more than the combined number of visitors to Buckingham Palace and the Tower of London. Seeking prosperity and life-changing spiritual experiences, visitors flock from around the globe. Enterprising Lagos residents – those not turfed out by landlords turning their properties into hotels – have transformed the rundown area into a hotbed of business. On a Saturday afternoon, traffic swirls around the four-storey, giant-columned Synagogue Church of All Nations. Delegates are pouring in for the following day's service. "They should really build a branch in South Africa – it's a long way to come and the hotels here are so-so," says Mark, a sunburnt businessman from Johannesburg, accompanied by two friends from Botswana. As the church's palm tree-lined entrance gives way to a maze of skinny, unpaved roads, knots of touts materialise. "In one year I made enough money to buy my first car," says Chris, using a tattered hotel brochure to mop his brow. He is paid 100 naira (about 40p) for each client he brings in. Sparkling new hotels rise incongruously among the shacks. At one, with a logo suspiciously similar to the Sheraton's, a new chef has recently been employed. "He can cook food from Singapore, because we were having a lot of guests from there who struggle with Nigerian food," says the manager, Ruky, at a reception desk framed by pictures of Joshua. Tony Makinwa says most of his laundromat profits come from tourists. "God has favoured my business. People come here and fall in love with the place and overstay their visits," he says.Also doing a roaring trade are the international calling centres with foreign visitor discounts, clothes shops offering outfits to celebrate miracles, and the plastic chair rentals that cater for church overspill. The area's dirt streets are punctured by unfinished, barnlike buildings as dozens of other churches offer all-day worship services. Almost as many mosques dot the area. Islam and Christianity are growing at blistering paces across Africa, with Nigeria home to the continent's most populous mix of both faiths. Money-changer Sidi Bah has travelled thousands of miles from Mali to continue his trade here. "I came because I heard many people from many countries visit. In one day I can change six or seven different types of currency," he says. "There are more mosques here than in my village in [Muslim] Mali." Miracle-promising Pentecostal churches took root across the continent in the 1980s, as African economies were battered by falling world commodity prices. Migrants poured into slums in search of jobs and dreams. Ruky has converted her cramped home into a 20-bed lodging where mainly rural workers stay for 800 naira a night. Mattresses are half price. "If you are sick like me, you have no job, so you are used to sleeping on the floor anyhow," says Andrew Olagbele, whose spine was crushed by a car accident, lying on a mattress in a crammed room. "I pray the Lord will touch me tomorrow so I can walk again." As dusk sets in, cars continue streaming in. A man hanging from the open door of a car thundering gospel songs waves copies of homemade CDs for sale. Denis Kokou and his wife, a baby on her hip, look on with weary smiles. "This is our first time coming from [regional neighbour] Togo. We are so happy to be here with our daughter."

Someone sent me what was described as a very revealing un-edited interview where Pastor Biodun Fatoyinbo of COZA admitted his "sexual manipulation" of Ese Walter. I'm finding it difficult to believe this so called revealing interview. But could it be what happened? See the confessions below: ‘Is it true you had sex with her everyday for seven days?’ ‘Zachariah 10. It’s a level of grace you can’t understand.’ Could this be true? Has Pastor Biodun opened up on Ese Walter to Chris Ihidero of TheNET? Excerpt: Good morning, Man of God. Thank you for finally speaking on this issue sir.’ ‘Welcome my brother, you are blessed. It is you I must thank for being very open-minded about this whole nonissue. I read your column last week and I must confess Nigeria is lucky to have people like you who still use their brain cells. The Lord be praised.’ ‘Hallelujah. So, where do we start from?’ ‘Let us start from the beginning. Praise the lord.’ ‘Hallelujah. So, what was on your mind when you invited her to the terrace of your hotel suite?’ ‘That’s not the beginning. It all started when I saw her in the congregation while preaching one Sunday; she was very vibratory, especially when taken over by the spirit doing praise and worship. Praise the lord. The spirit ministered to me that she would be useful in Pastoral Care. That was why I invited her to the unit. And she was very useful. Praise the lord.’ ‘Hallelujah. By ‘very useful’ you are talking about your affair with her, right?’ ‘No, we didn’t have an affair; we had an understanding. Praise the lord. ‘Really? Explain to me how that works, sir.’ ‘Praise the lord. She understood that I am a Man of God with a weakness. I understood that she was a believer with an equal weakness. She understood that I was a married man; I understood that she was a willing woman. She understood that I could make her no promises of forevermore; I understood that she understood that by associating with me I would introduce her to a level of grace she was previously unaware of.' ‘Is this also the kind of understanding you had with others that led to your suspension in Ilorin and the 130 women you have slept with?’ ‘Lie! Big lie! One hundred and thirty?!!! Haba, how could one man have done that, even with a never seen before level of grace? They just want to give my dog a bad name just to hang it. 120, I may accept, but 130? Never. When it is not as if I have a spare mobile penis that I charge with car charger. People should fear God when saying some things o. Praise the lord.’ ‘Let’s return to her story. So, what were your intentions when you invited her to your hotel suite?’ ‘Special deliverance, I swear. God sees my heart. I had heard some uncomplimentary stuff about her and had caught her looking at me somehow during Pastoral Care Unit meetings, so I knew I had to intercede for her to retain God’s glory in her life. Praise the lord. Even when I asked her to come to the terrace it was so we could get cool breeze during the deliverance. All was well until she sat on my laps.’ ‘What happened when she sat on your laps after you invited her to do so?’ ‘My weakness arose. And when we kissed…my brother, do you eat seedless grapes? That’s what her tongue tasted like, soft and succulent. What was I to do? You people don’t know how hard it is to pastor a Pentecostal church in Nigeria, especially in this Abuja ! You are there teaching the word of God and what do you have before you? Gorgeous women with sly smiles; with breasts, big and small, chiseled upon their chests like those old wood carvings; lips like cherries; eyes speaking to your soul, telling you their desires. Ah, until you have walked in my shoes you are not qualified to judge me. Praise the lord.’ Ask the Lord for rain in the spring for he makes the storm clouds. And he will send showers of rain so every field becomes a lush pasture.’ ‘You know your bible. Praise the lord.’ ‘You know sir, each time you say ‘Praise the lord’, what I hear is Praise the Rod. It seems to me that you spend more time doing the rod’s work than you do doing the lord’s work.’ ‘Who died and made you judge? Don’t make proclamation about me if you don’t want the wrath of God. I’m a man of God, remember? [touch not my anointed] Praise the lord.’ ‘Is this also why you’ve refused to explain yourself to your congregation?’ ‘They don’t need any explanation. They know me.‘We would have to end this interview on this note sir. Thanks again for your time. – So, do you think this interview is real or someone's imagination?