High-profile Nigerian pastor Tobi Adegboyega has dismissed claims he was about to be deported from Britain, where his church is facing allegations of financial misconduct.
Pastor Adegboyega, leader of SPAC Nation (Salvation Proclaimer Ministries Limited), now known as Nation Family, told the BBC: “There is no deportation order. Let me make that clear.”
He said the lawsuit is still an “ongoing matter.”
Wearing two jewel-encrusted rings and a Louis Vuitton tie, the preacher says he arrived in Britain in 2005 at the age of 25 on a visitor’s visa and assumed his family was handling his immigration papers.
But this was not the case.
“I lost track of time,” he said, referring to the nearly decade-long delay in filing an application to regularize his immigration status.
He also said it would be “impossible” to move his church to Nigeria if he were deported.
In December, a British Charity Commission investigation found there had been “serious misconduct and/or mismanagement in the governance” of his church.
But Pastor Adegboyega dismissed these allegations.
‘It’s not true. They’ve been working on this for four years,” he said.
This is not the first accusation the church has faced.
In 2019, a BBC Panorama investigation revealed that it had been accused of financial exploitation of young members of the congregation.
Members said they were forced to donate money after taking out loans and benefit fraud. The church denied these claims at the time.
Pastor Adegboyega has also dismissed these allegations.
“If you have a thousand people in one place, are you telling me that thirty people won’t be dissatisfied? How on earth can you run an organization without dissatisfied people?” he said.
The Christian Evangelical Church was founded in Britain in 2012 as a charity to help vulnerable people, tackle gun violence and help young offenders.
Pastor Adegboyega said his church had helped take hundreds of knives off the streets.
“We believe in a practical approach to helping a community – young people from low socio-economic backgrounds, taking them out of crime,” he said.
Pastor Adegboyega also hit back at criticism of his lavish lifestyle and preference for designer clothes, expensive jewelry and luxury watches.
He arrived at the BBC offices in central London in a Lamborghini, along with a G-Wagon [a top-of-the-range Mercedes-Benz SUV] for his entourage.
“I wear what’s right, what resonates with the generation I’m speaking to, so they’re not attracted to drug dealers,” he said.
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[Getty Images/BBC]
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