On Friday, April 27, 2018, an extraordinary story began circulating on social media in Nigeria.
Sat Guru Maharaj Ji, the founder and spiritual leader of the One Love Family, was reportedly dead.
The claim was startling because Maharaj Ji was not an ordinary religious figure. For decades, he had presented himself as the “Living Perfect Master”, a spiritual teacher with an extraordinary place in the universe. His followers gathered at Maharaj Ji Village along the Ibadan Lagos Expressway, where he had established a distinctive spiritual community.
The rumour therefore carried particular weight.
Some reports claimed that he had died in Ibadan after an illness. One online report specifically alleged tuberculosis and claimed that people were visiting the spiritual centre after hearing the news.
But within hours, questions began to emerge.
The report had not been independently established, and by Saturday, Maharaj Ji’s spokesman, Ojo Peter, publicly announced that the spiritual leader was alive and well. He described the death report as false and alleged that it had been deliberately circulated by people opposed to Maharaj Ji’s outspoken public statements.
The man supposedly lying dead in Ibadan was about to speak for himself.
Maharaj Ji Answers the Rumour
On Saturday, April 28, Maharaj Ji appeared on a radio programme monitored in Ibadan.
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His response was not simply a denial.
According to contemporary reporting, he said he was at Maharaj Ji Village and was “alive and well”. More remarkably, he said he had been excited when he heard that people were reporting his death.
He described himself as “beyond death”.
Maharaj Ji also connected death to his spiritual beliefs. He said that people died through ignorance and disobedience to the creator and argued that a person who lived correctly could escape death.
These were Maharaj Ji’s own spiritual claims and formed part of the worldview he had preached for years.
Then he made the statement that turned an unusual death rumour into one of the strangest stories attached to his name.
He said he would live for more than 500 years on Earth.
Who Was Guru Maharaji?
Behind the bizarre headline was a man who had already spent decades building one of Nigeria’s most unusual spiritual movements.
Academic research identifies Maharaj Ji as Mohammed Saheed Ajirobatan Dan Ibrahim. A University of Ibadan research team that visited his community in 2017 described him as the leader of the One Love Family, a spiritual movement based at Maharaj Ji Village along the Lagos Ibadan Expressway.
The researchers recorded that Maharaj Ji had previously worked for the defunct Nigeria Airways and had lived in London before returning to Nigeria.
According to the same research, Maharaj Ji described a spiritual rebirth occurring on January 1, 1985. Two years later, in 1987, the movement established what it called its “Holy Land” at its present location near Ibadan.
The name Maharaj Ji itself carried a spiritual meaning within the movement. His followers regarded him as the “Perfect Living Master” and the “Light of the World”.
He rejected the idea that the One Love Family was simply another religion.
Instead, he described it as a way of life.
Inside the Strange World of Maharaj Ji Village
The community that Maharaj Ji built was far more structured than the bizarre stories surrounding its leader might suggest.
Researchers from the University of Ibadan visited Maharaj Ji Village in June 2017 and documented its rules, physical organisation and relationship with the surrounding state and society.
Visitors were required to register before entering. Shoes had to be removed, and electronic devices were prohibited in parts of the complex.
The researchers recorded a farmland, canteen, supermarket, meditation building, media facility, Satsang Hall and other structures within the settlement.
There were also strict rules governing behaviour and appearance.
The movement’s own published visitor guidelines prohibit several things, including shoes, alcohol, smoking, private food, electronic gadgets and certain clothing. Women are instructed to cover their hair, while other restrictions govern dress and conduct within the community.
For Maharaj Ji’s followers, however, the village was not simply a settlement.
They regarded it as a sacred place.
Why Ibadan Became the “Holy Land”
The location itself was central to Maharaj Ji’s teachings.
The University of Ibadan research documented the movement’s belief that Ibadan had become the “Holy Land” of its era.
According to the researchers, Maharaj Ji taught that the Great Light of Creation periodically settled in a particular place to carry out a divine project. In his interpretation, Ibadan had become that location from 1987.
The movement also incorporated references to Yoruba mythology and traditional African spirituality alongside ideas drawn from Christianity, Islam and other religious traditions.
This mixture helped give the One Love Family a distinctive identity.
It also helped explain why Maharaj Ji’s language about life and death was so different from conventional religious or medical explanations.
For his followers, he was not simply a preacher discussing mortality.
He was presenting himself as a spiritual figure whose existence had a much greater meaning.
The Man Behind the Controversy
By the time the death rumour appeared in 2018, Maharaj Ji had already spent decades attracting both devoted followers and intense public attention.
His movement had experienced disputes over land, accusations and confrontations with authorities and local communities.
The University of Ibadan research provides an unusual glimpse into one aspect of that history. It records that the group’s earlier “Holy Land” in Lagos had been at 33 Shitta Thompson Street, Iju Water Works, before a court order led to its eviction in October 2011. The movement subsequently operated from its larger site along the Ibadan Lagos Expressway.
The village was therefore not merely a spiritual retreat. It had a complicated history involving land, religious identity, public authority and the practical business of maintaining a large community.
That history formed the backdrop against which the 2018 rumour was received.
The Rumour Had a Life of Its Own
The most striking thing about the 2018 incident was how quickly the false report moved.
According to contemporary reports, social media users posted news of Maharaj Ji’s supposed death on Friday. After his representatives confirmed that he was alive, some people deleted their posts while others apologised.
The episode captured an important change in Nigerian public life.
Death rumours were not new.
Social media was.
A claim could move from an individual phone to hundreds or thousands of people before anyone had established where it came from.
The identity of the person who originally created the 2018 rumour was not established in the contemporary reports. Maharaj Ji’s spokesman accused unnamed opponents of deliberately creating it, but that allegation was his and was not independently established.
The tuberculosis story circulating in one online report likewise remained an unverified claim. It should not be treated as the cause of any actual death.
There was no death.
Maharaj Ji was alive and speaking publicly the following day.
“Beyond Death”
For Maharaj Ji, however, the most interesting part of the episode was not that the rumour was false.
It was what the rumour allowed him to say about himself.
During the radio appearance, he reportedly interpreted the death report through his own spiritual philosophy.
He said that he was physically beyond death.
He described himself as a perfect master.
He suggested that the attention surrounding the rumour showed that people wanted to know more about him.
And then came the extraordinary prediction that he would live for more than 500 years.
The claim was so striking because it went beyond ordinary religious language about immortality.
Maharaj Ji was speaking about physical existence on Earth.
A Claim That Became Part of the Historical Record
There is an important difference between recording an extraordinary claim and proving it.
The historical record can establish that Maharaj Ji made the statement.
It cannot establish that a human being could live for more than 500 years.
The same distinction applies to his assertion that he was “beyond death”. That statement can be documented as part of his teachings and public identity, but it remains a spiritual claim rather than a demonstrated biological fact.
This distinction is particularly important in the history of charismatic religious movements.
Followers may preserve extraordinary accounts of their leader. Critics may reject them entirely. Journalists may report them because they are newsworthy. Historians must preserve the difference between what was said, what people believed and what can actually be demonstrated.
In Maharaj Ji’s case, all three became entangled during one remarkable weekend in April 2018.
The Strange Irony of the 2018 Episode
The death rumour produced an almost perfect paradox.
A man known as the Living Perfect Master was declared dead.
His followers and the public began looking for answers.
His spokesman announced that he was alive.
Then Maharaj Ji himself appeared on radio and said he was not only alive, but beyond death.
The rumour that was supposed to end the story instead gave him another opportunity to explain his spiritual philosophy.
It also revealed how much his public identity depended on the idea that Maharaj Ji was different from an ordinary human being.
For decades, the One Love Family had built its spiritual life around his teachings and presence. The 2018 rumour briefly challenged that foundation.
His response restored it almost immediately.
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The Man Who Was Reported Dead
The story that began with a social media death report ended with something considerably stranger.
Sat Guru Maharaj Ji was alive.
His spokesman had denied the rumour.
He had appeared on radio from Ibadan.
And instead of treating the episode merely as misinformation, Maharaj Ji turned it into a declaration about his own understanding of life, death and spiritual existence.
He said he was beyond death.
He said that people died because of ignorance and disobedience.
And he claimed that he would live for more than 500 years.
The episode remains one of the most unusual moments in the public history of the One Love Family, not because the supernatural claim can be established, but because it shows how a single rumour could collide with the beliefs, identity and public image of one of Nigeria’s most controversial spiritual leaders.
A report announced his death.
The next day, Maharaj Ji was alive to contradict it.
And in doing so, he gave the rumour a place in his own extraordinary legend.
Author’s Note
The 2018 Maharaj Ji death rumour became remarkable because the man at its centre did not merely deny that he was dead. He used the moment to reaffirm his identity as the Living Perfect Master, declaring himself beyond death and claiming that he would live for more than 500 years. The episode also offers a striking glimpse into the One Love Family, its unusual spiritual worldview and the speed with which social media could transform an unverified report into national conversation.
References
Atoyebi, Olufemi. “Satguru Mararaj Ji is alive, says aide.” Punch Newspapers, April 28, 2018.
Atoyebi, Olufemi. “Maharaji dispels death rumour, says ‘I’m beyond death’.” Punch Newspapers, April 29, 2018.
Adetoro, Adejoke Rafiat; Adebayo, Adedeji; Ashamu, Kayode; Ijimakinwa, Feyisitan; Ogunsemoyin, Olubusayo; and Omotayo, Charles. One Love Family: Intersection with State and Non-State Agents in Spatial Appropriation. IFRA Nigeria Working Papers Series 61, 2017.
Vanguard News. “Satguru Mararaj Ji is alive, not dead, says aide.” April 28, 2018.
Divine Light Mission. “Guidelines for Visiting the Holy Land.” Official One Love Family website.
