A Nigerian pastor whose church was shut down over an alleged £1.87 million fraud has lost his fight against deportation, despite claiming it would breach his human rights.

An immigration tribunal has ruled that Tobi Adegboyega, 44, the cousin of John Boyega, the Star Wars actor, should be deported back to his native Nigeria after investigations, including by The Telegraph, exposed misuse of funds by his church.

Mr Adegboyega was head of SPAC Nation, a controversial church shut down after failing to properly account for more than £1.87 million of outgoings and operating with lack of transparency.

He claimed deportation would breach his right under the European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR) to a family life – having married a British woman.

He also said the attempt to remove him by the Home Office failed to take account of his community work with SPAC.

Describing a “charismatic” community leader of a large, well-organised church, his 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 personal presence in London, projects that he had masterminded would fall apart or reduce in size.

However, the tribunal was told the Home Office contended “all is not as it seems”.

“Various manifestations of [Mr Adegboyega’s] church have been closed down, by either the Charity Commission or the High Court, because of concerns over its finances and lack of transparency,” according to the judgment.

‘Selling their own blood’

“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 own blood.

“It is alleged that the church leadership lead lavish lifestyles and there have, it is said, been instances of abuse. The [Home Office’s] case before us was that all of this needs to be taken into account when evaluating whether [Mr Adegboyega] is in fact of real value to the UK.”

Mr Adegboyega has 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. His application was initially dismissed by a first-tier immigration tribunal before he appealed. In the tribunal, he maintained no one had ever faced criminal charges over his church’s finances, that many of the attacks on him and SPAC Nation were politically motivated and that claims it was a cult were unfounded.

However, the tribunal was told the Charity Commission concluded “there had been serious misconduct and/or mismanagement in the administration of the charity which was sustained over a substantial period of time”.

The tribunal also found Mr Adegboyega’s evidence to be “hyperbolic in many instances” and had “sought to grossly inflate his influence”.

“We find it to be implausible that he has the time to undertake all of this work personally,” it said.

The tribunal concluded: “We are not satisfied that the good work that SPAC Nation undertakes generally would collapse or even significantly suffer should the Appellant be required to leave the UK.

“Weighing all of the foregoing in the balance we conclude that the decision to refuse leave to remain was wholly proportionate.

“[Mr Adegboyega] seeks to rely on family and private life relationships, all of which have been established whilst he was in the UK unlawfully, and which would survive his return to Nigeria.

Court papers filed by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission have linked the immediate-past Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele, to the massive Abuja property with 753 duplexes and other apartments located in the Cadastral Zone area of the capital city.

The anti-graft agency on Monday announced the recovery of the property from an unnamed ex-government top brass, describing the property as the biggest single recovery it had made in the course of fighting corruption since its establishment in 2003.

The recovery followed a ruling delivered on December 2, 2024 by Justice Jude Onwuegbuzie of the FCT High Court in Apo.

In the court documents obtained by our correspondent on Tuesday, the EFCC ran a narration linking Emefiele to the massive property spanning 150,500 square metre and identified as Plot 109, Cadazral Zone C09, Lokogoma District, Abuja.

Emefiele is currently being prosecuted by the EFCC in three separate cases before different judges.

Before Justice Hamza Mu’azu, he is being tried for procurement fraud, forgery of former President Muhammadu Buhari’s signature, and other charges.

Before Justice Rahman Oshodi at the Special Offences Court in Ikeja, Lagos, Emefiele is charged with alleged fraud involving $4.5bn and N2.8bn.

Additionally, Emefiele is before Justice Maryann Anenih of the FCT High Court in Abuja for allegedly approving the printing of N684.5m notes at the cost of N18.96bn.

According to the document, Emefiele allegedly carried out “monumental fraud” as the CBN governor with his cronies to acquire several properties including the estate.

“The commission whilst investigating the alleged monumental fraud carried out by the immediate past Governor of the CBN and his cronies traced and discovered several properties reasonably suspected to have been acquired and or developed with proceeds of unlawful activities.

“The property highlighted in Schedule A to this application is one of the said properties recovered, having been reasonably suspected to have been acquired/ developed with proceeds of unlawful activities.”

The EFCC alleged that “in the cause of this investigation, it was revealed that the erstwhile CBN governor negotiated kickbacks in return for allocation of foreign exchange to some companies who were in desperate need of foreign exchange for their lawful and legitimate businesses.

“Our investigation equally revealed that erstwhile CBN Governor received kickbacks from some contractors who were awarded contracts by the Central Bank of Nigeria.”

The anti-graft agency also alleged that Emefiele connived with several cronies, including one Ifeanyi Omeke, who “ran several errands for him, which included purchase and perfection of title documents for several properties located in highbrow areas of Lagos and Abuja.”

It said the documents for the Abuja property were recovered during a search of Omeke’s office and that investigators located the property on September 17, 2024 “with the assistance of a surveyor from the Abuja Geographical Information Systems, using search results and coordinate.”

The EFCC said its investigation “revealed that the said property has been abandoned and deserted with only a guard manning the said property since June 2023 upon the arrest of the erstwhile CBN Governor. “

The PUNCH reported that the Department of State Services arrested Emefiele in Lagos the following day he was suspended by President Bola Tinubu.

In October, the EFCC arrested Emefiele in less than an hour he regained his freedom from the DSS.

According to the EFCC, the massive property, allegedly acquired by Emefiele, through cronies, was originally meant for a mass housing development.

The EFCC said its investigation revealed that Emefiele used three companies to pay a total of N2.2bn to buy the property.

It said the seller “received the aggregate sum of N2,200,000,000.00,” adding that “the said three companies used for the payment of the property are enmeshed in criminal maneuvering of layering proceeds of illegal activities of Mr. Godwin Emiefele.”

According to the EFCC, one of the companies was used to pay N900m, the second paid N700m, while the third paid N600m, totalling N2.2bn.

It said the directors of the companies were arrested “and their statements voluntarily obtained in the course of investigation.”

“The funds used in the acquisition of the property highlighted in Schedule A to this application are not legitimate earnings of Godwin Emefiele but funds acquired through illegal and unlawful activities.

“That I know as a fact and verily believe that the source/origin of the funds used in the acquisition and/or development of the properties sought to be forfeited are proceeds of unlawful activities to wit: corrupt enrichment, receiving of gratification or kickbacks and abuse of office,” an EFCC investigator stated in the affidavit filed in court.

The EFCC noted that the court had on November 1, 2024 made an order for the temporary forfeiture of the property “after evaluating facts placed before it.”

It, therefore, urged the judge to order the permanent forfeiture of the property to the Federal Government as no one had come forward to challenge the facts placed before the court, in spite of adverting the interim forfeiture order in The PUNCH edition of November 6, 2024.

According to the EFCC, the court acceded to its request and has now permanently forfeited the property to the Federal Government.

Efforts to get the reaction of Emefiele’s legal team were unsuccessfuly. One of the lawyers, Matthew Burkaa( SAN), did not pick up calls to his line and had also yet to respond to a text message seeking Emefiele’s side of the story as of the time of filing this report.
(Punch)

The Organised Labour in Enugu State has refuted the media reports that the new minimum wage was yet to be paid in the state, saying that the implementation of the N80,000 minimum wage, which is above the N70,000 national minimum wage, commenced in November 2024.

The workers also said that they had no plan to go on strike.

They said that observed discrepancies in consequential adjustment in the implementation of the N80,000 minimum wage had already been conveyed to Governor Peter Mbah assuring that it would be addressed subsequently, as he had already earned workers’ trust by his commitment to their welfare since his assumption of office.

This was made known in a joint statement in the state capital on Tuesday by the Chairman, Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, Enugu State Council, Comrade Fabian Nwigbo; Chairman of the Trade Union Congress, TUC, Comrade Ben Asogwa; and the Chairman of the state’s Joint Public Service Negotiating Council, JNC, Comrade Ezekiel Omeh.

The statement read, “The Orgaised Labour in Enugu State wishes to make clarifications in several media reports, which wrongly project Enugu among the states that are yet to pay the national minimum wage.

“We want to acknowledge the fact that the Enugu State Government paid the N80,000 minimum wage approved by the governor in the November 2024 salary.

“However, the minimum wage paid did not reflect the consequential adjustments inherent in minimum wage implementation.

“As labour leaders, we have already communicated to His Excellency the observed discrepancies and in his usual magnanimity to the welfare of workers, we strongly believe that he will address this subsequently.

“Our confidence in the governor remains intact, considering his usual dispositions to the wellbeing of workers.

“It is worthy of note that he continued to pay wage award of N25,000 he approved for workers from December 2023 till October 2024 when the new minimum wage of N80,000 was approved and consequently reflected in the November salary.

“We also recall his good faith in ensuring that local government employees were included from the onset in the new minimum wage of N80,000, having earlier upgraded them to full N30,000 minimum wage upon assumption of office after several years of waiting.

“Likewise, he approved the payment of the N1.9bn four-year accumulated leave allowances owed to teachers of public primary schools in the state and eight-month salary arrears valued at over N467m, which were also owed the academic, non-academic, and casual staff of the Enugu State College of Education Technical, ESCET, Enugu, before his assumption of office.

“Consequently, in the same culture, we trust him to address all the concerns regarding consequential adjustments in the implementation of N80,000 minimum wage.

“So, we have not gone on strike. We do not also contemplate or foresee any strike in the near future because there is no need for that yet.”