Nigerian pastor Tobi Adegboyega has dismissed allegations that he is about to be deported from the UK, where his church is facing allegations of financial misconduct.
Pastor Adegboyega, the leader of SPAC Nation (Salvation Proclaimer Ministries Limited), now known as Nation Family, told the BBC: “There is no expulsion order. Let me make that clear.”
He said the court case is still an ongoing matter.
Sporting two bejeweled rings and a Louis Vuitton tie, the preacher says he arrived in the UK aged 25 in 2005 on a visitor’s visa and thought his family held his immigration papers.
But it wasn’t like that.
“I lost track of time,” he said, referring to a decade-long delay in applying to change his immigration status.
He also said that it would not be possible to move his church to Nigeria if he were to be evicted.
In December, an investigation by the UK Charity Commission found “gross misconduct and/or mismanagement” of his church.
But Pastor Adegboyega dismissed the allegations.
“It is a lie. They have been talking about this for four years,” he said.
This is not the first accusation that this church is facing.
In 2019, a BBC Panorama investigation found that he was accused of financially exploiting young church members.
The members said they were forced to donate money after borrowing money and through benefit fraud. The church denied these claims at the time.
Reverend Adegboyega also dismissed the allegations.
“If you have 1,000 people in a place, you tell me that 30 people will not come in? How do you manage an organization without people who have given up?” he said.
The Christian Evangelical Church was founded in the UK as a charity in 2012 with the aim of helping vulnerable people, fighting gun violence and helping young offenders.
Pastor Adegboyega said his congregation helped remove hundreds of knives from the streets.
“We believe in using a way to help the community – young people from low economic levels, to get them out of crime,” he said.
Pastor Adegboyega also responded to criticism of his lavish lifestyle and love of designer clothes, expensive jewelry and luxury watches.
He arrived at the BBC’s central London office in a Lamborghini, along with a G-Wagon [a top-of-the-range Mercedes-Benz SUV] to his followers.
“I wear what’s right, which includes the generation I’m talking to so that I don’t get attracted to drug dealers,” he said.
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