Controversial Nigerian pastor dismisses UK deportation claims
Nigerian pastor Tobi Adeboyega speaks on UK deportation and SPAC Nation allegations
- Published
High-profile Nigerian Pastor Tobi Adegboyega has dismissed claims that he was about to be deported from the UK, 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 court case was still an "ongoing issue."
Sporting two jewel-encrusted rings and a Louis Vuitton tie, the preacher says he arrived in the UK aged 25 in 2005 on a visitor's visa and assumed his family was handling his immigration paperwork.
But this was not the case.
"I lost track of time," he said, referring to the nearly decade-long delay in applying to regularise his immigration status.
He also said it would be "impossible" to move his church to Nigeria in the event he was deported.
In December, an investigation by the UK Charity Commission found "serious misconduct and/or mismanagement in the administration" of his church.
But Pastor Adegboyega dismissed these allegations.
"It is false. They have been on this thing for the past four years," he said.
This is not the first allegation the church has faced.
In 2019, a BBC Panorama investigation found it had been accused of financially exploiting young members of the congregation.
Members said they had been forced to donate money after taking out loans and through benefit fraud. The church denied these claims at the time.
Pastor Adegboyega also dismissed these allegations.
"If you have 1,000 people in a place, are you telling me 30 people will not be disgruntled? How on earth do you run an organisation without disgruntled people?" he said.
The Christian evangelical church was set up in the UK as a charity in 2012 looking to help vulnerable people, tackle gun violence and help young offenders.
Pastor Adegboyega said his church had helped get hundreds of knives off the streets.
"We believe in a practical approach to help a community - young people coming out of low social-economic background, taking them out of crime," he said.
Pastor Adegboyega also hit back over criticism of his lavish lifestyle and taste for designer clothes, expensive jewellery and luxury watches.
He arrived at the BBC office in central London in a Lamborghini, along with a G-Wagon [a top-of-the-range Mercedes-Benz SUV] for his entourage.
"I put on what is right, what connects to the generation I'm speaking to so they are not attracted to drug dealers," he said.
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