Nigerian Pastor Sunday Adelaja Faces Arrest and Government Freezes Assets
Nigerian-born pastor, Sunday Adelaja, who oversees one of the largest evangelical churches in Eastern Europe, faced the possibility of arrest Tuesday.
Police summoned him to their headquarters in Kiev, Ukraine, where he could have been detained in an investigation into his alleged involvement in a now-defunct business run by members of his church.Here's some information on Adelaja and his history via Wikipedia:
Adelaja told a Nigerian newspaper that police turned him away at the door because the charges are not ready, but they told him to return next week.
Though he is free, Adelaja learned that all his assets, including his home, vehicles and bank accounts, have been seized by the government.
Police have been investigating Adelaja for several years in connection with an investment firm run by members of his church.
The company collapsed in the global recession and authorities are accusing Adelaja of fraud and running a criminal enterprise.
Adelaja said neither he nor his leaders had any connection with the business and police have never produced evidence of a link.
He said five members of his church have been imprisoned without trial in an attempt to force them to testify against him.
Adelaja told CBN News that he's facing persecution for religious, ethnic and political reasons.
Sunday Adelaja is the founder and senior pastor of the Embassy of God, an evangelical-charismatic megachurch in Kiev, Ukraine. He immigrated to the USSR and Belarus as a scholarship student from Nigeria in 1986 to study journalism. After graduation and the breakdown of the USSR, he started several churches that he later handed over to other pastors before he moved from Belarus to Ukraine in December 1993.
Adelaja has faced criticism from local groups, other Ukrainian Evangelical churches, the Eastern Orthodox Church and from foreign-based Christian counter-cult organizations as well as accusations of involvement in fraud.
Read more on his accusations of fraud HERE.
-Content from Associated Press
