The British government is likely to deport prominent preacher Tobi Adegboyega to Nigeria after he lost his deportation appeal at the immigration courts.
According to GREENMAX, the UK government has shut down his church, SPAC Nation, after investigations revealed that church leadership misused funds.
The church was reportedly shuttered by UK authorities after Adegboyega failed to properly account for more than £1.87 million in outgoings and operated with a lack of openness.
However, according to The Telegraph, an immigration panel concluded that he should be deported to Nigeria following investigations.
Adegboyega has been living illegally in the UK since 2005, when he arrived on a visitor’s visa.
In 2019, the pastor sought leave to remain under the ECHR’s right to family life.
His application was first denied by a first-tier immigration tribunal, but he appealed.
The pastor, who is married to a British lady, said that deportation would violate his right to a family life under the European Convention on Human Rights and failed to take into account his community work with SPAC.
His defense team portrayed him as a ‘charismatic’ community leader of a huge, well-organized church who had ‘intervened in the lives of many hundreds of young people, mostly from the black communities in London, to guide them away from danger’.
Politicians, including the previous Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, and senior figures within the Metropolitan Police had ‘lauded’ his work, he claimed, but no testimony by them was submitted to the court.
However, the Home Office contended that ‘all is not as it seems’ and dragged him before an immigration tribunal.
However, according to the judgment as quoted by The Telegraph, the tribunal said evidences against the Nigerian pastor were taken to consideration.
