An immigration tribunal has ruled that the Adegboyega should be deported back to his native, Nigeria, after investigations exposed misuse of funds by his church.
His church was shut down after failing to properly account for more than £1.87 million of outgoings and operating without transparency.
He claimed deportation would breach his right under the European Convention of Human Rights, ECHR, to family life – having married a British woman, adding that the attempt to remove him by the Home Office failed to take account of his community work.
The Pastor’s legal team claimed that he had intervened in the lives of many hundreds of young people, predominantly from the black communities in London, to lead them away from trouble.
He claimed his work had been lauded by politicians including Boris Johnson and senior figures within the Metropolitan Police, although no testimony by them was submitted to the court. He said that without his presence in London, projects that he had masterminded would fall apart or reduce in size.
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However, the tribunal was told the Home Office contended that all is not as it seems.
According to the judgment, various manifestations of the church have been closed down, by either the Charity Commission or the High Court, because of concerns over its finances and lack of transparency.
Former members of the church have alleged that it is a cult, in which impoverished young people are encouraged to do anything they can to donate money, including taking out large loans, committing benefit fraud, and even selling their blood.
They also alleged that the church leadership leads lavish lifestyles and there have reportedly been instances of abuse.
Adegboyega is said to have allegedly lived in the UK unlawfully since overstaying on a visitor’s visa that allowed him to enter Britain in 2005. In 2019, he applied for leave to remain under ECHR’s right to a family life.
In the tribunal, Adegboyega maintained no one had ever faced criminal charges over his church’s finances, and that many of the attacks on him were politically motivated, saying that claims it was a cult were groundless.
The tribunal also found the pastor’s evidence to be hyperbolic in many instances and had sought to grossly inflate his influence. It also found it implausible that the pastor has the time to undertake all the work personally.