Pastor Sunday Adelaja, a Ukraine-based Nigerian evangelist, gets into trouble with the country’s authorities and other evangelists for allegedly supporting a failed investment scheme, which cost investors $100million, and bending the scriptures
By Bamidele Johnson
In Kiev, capital of Ukraine, Sunday Adelaja, a Nigerian preacher, is a smash hit. He is the founder of Blessed Kingdom of God for All Nations, aka God’s Embassy, Ukraine’s biggest church. Last March, however, things went wrong for the celebrity preacher, when he found himself at the centre of a controversy over his alleged involvement in a business venture through which, some claim, investors lost $100 million. The controversy broke last November, when Adelaja was accused of involvement in the dealings of King’s Capital, a financial company under the control of a member of his congregation. The company, which promised as much as 60 per cent returns on investments, drew many of its investors from Adelaja’s church.
However, last March, many church members went to Ukrainian authorities, complaining that they could not recover the money they invested. As a result, many of them went bankrupt. Ukrainian police later arrested Aleksandr Bandurchenko, one of King’s Capital leaders, on suspicions of fraud. Anger over Adelaja’s link with King’s Capital increased when it was suggested that he has interests in GS Microfinance Bank Limited, based in Nigeria where, some alleged, he invested funds from King’s Capital. He was also accused of planning to flee the country. Adelaja has dismissed the allegations, saying he was not involved with King’s Capital, but denied that it was a scheme, which uses later investments to pay dividends to earlier investors.
Adelaja described King’s Capital as a legitimate business that failed because it poured most of its capital into real estate, which lost value as a result of the global financial meltdown. “When the crisis came, all the real estate were no more selling. The land is enough to pay back the money owed. The problem is everything is stopped in the country–nothing is selling now in Ukraine,” the pastor said. Adelaja added that Ukraine’s Interior Affairs Minister, Yurii Lutsenko, is minded to undermine the evangelical movement in the country with the accusation that the church was involved in a fraudulent scheme. “[Lutsenko] is in a very bad situation. He’s got to prove now that [King’s Capital] is a pyramid scheme, but he cannot,” he stressed.
Adelaja denied encouraging his church members to invest in the company and advised them to invest in businesses that offer insurance. “Of course, if you invest with insurance, you get less percentage. What happened was many people said they didn’t need insurance because the [King’s Capital] leaders were Christians,” he added. The preacher, however, admitted links with GS Microfinance, but said he only invested his name and influence in the bank, not millions of dollars. According to him, GS Microfinance was formed to provide micro-credit to poor Nigerians. Despite Adelaja’s denial of involvement in King’s Capital, which has not officially been pronounced a fraudulent scheme, Pentecostal leaders across Ukraine claim they severally heard him encourage church members to invest in the company. “He was not a president of this company, but he was the No. 1 spiritual leader and he told them what they have to do. He can do everything to tell them (he is) not involved, but all (the) leaders have a lot of facts and we have a lot of video of when he was pushing people and he encouraged people to invest in this business,” said Bishop M. S.Panochko, leader of the All-Ukrainian Union of Pentecostal Churches of Evangelical Faith, an umbrella for 1,500 congregations. Panochko was one of 10 Pentecostal leaders who confronted Adelaja over his alleged support of King’s Capital and criticised some of his actions. The Pentecostal bishops, representing over 2,500 congregations, provided a list of alleged misdemeanours and accused Adelaja of making exaggerated statements. In particular, they pointed to his alleged claim that he led the 2004 Orange Revolution, which saw Ukrainian voters protesting a flawed presidential election, and reports that his church has 100,000 members in Ukraine. These and others, said the bishops, are untrue. After the meeting, Adelaja issued a statement saying he did not organise the Orange Revolution, but that members of his church participated in the protests. He also apologised for the negative effect of the King’s Capital scandal on Ukrainian churches, but added that he had no personal involvement in the company. Panochko threatened that if Adelaja fails to apologise for his role in King’s Capital, Ukrainian bishops would call on Christians in Ukraine and abroad, and the Ukrainian government, to denounce Adelaja.
Rick Renner, a Moscow-based pastor and founder of the Good News Association of Churches and Ministries for Russia, Latvia and Ukraine, said Adelaja’s claims have hurt Christians in the former Soviet Union. He said claims of God’s Embassy’s involvement in the Orange Revolution have led some governments to come down on churches out of fear that Christians are political activists. “Pastors and Christian leaders are now trying to manoeuvre through new restrictive laws that have been passed because of Sunday’s claim that he and his church organised the Orange Revolution. He owes the body of Christ an apology, first for lying about the fact that he organised it and carried it out, and second, for creating this very difficult environment for which others are now paying a very high price,” he said.
Renner and other Pentecostal leaders said they have long been worried about Adelaja’s claims that God’s Embassy has 100,000 members across Ukraine, when they think the church has about 10,000. “Thousands of people have been saved and filled with the Holy Spirit, and many lives have been changed [through God’s Embassy]. There was never a need for him to exaggerate on such a massive scale as he has been doing in recent years. I have never wanted to call Sunday a liar, so most often I tried to ignore the subject of Sunday’s falsehoods when I heard them. Now in light of the lies being told by Sunday, denying that he ever recommended that his people invest in this company, I was taken to a new place of prayer and concern. It was in the midst of this that the Lord impressed me to speak out,” claimed Renner.
At a sermon, Renner called on members of God’s Embassy to leave the church if Adelaja doesn’t repent. This, however, sparked a furious debate among Christians on either side. Dmitry Kirichenko of the Kiev-based World Harvest Church, openly expressed support for Adelaja, arguing that there are no facts proving Adelaja’s involvement in the establishment and operation of King’s Capital. But Sergei Shidlovsky of the Seeking God Movement and a former member of Adelaja’s church, said he attended many meetings during which Adelaja urged people to invest in King’s Capital. “I personally sat in the room when he explained to everyone how important it is to take the credit out of the house or apartment and invest precisely in this company,” he said. Shidlovsky invested 1,000 Euros and convinced his mother to sell her apartment in Belarus and invest the profit. “I became a contributor of King’s Capital only by trust in Sunday Adelaja and his calls to invest in this company,” he claimed. Adelaja described Shidlovsky’s claims as “absolutely not true”, saying he invited a church member to discuss investing as part of ongoing teaching on financial stewardship. Adelaja said the financial talk was not about King’s Capital but may have been misconstrued.
Some of those things Adelaja has been accused of are aspirations to create a cult of personality; activity, based on self-advertisement, exaggeration of personal merits and lying; false doctrine of prosperity and the sin of love of money. Alex Mykhaylyk, dean of History Makers Bible School, a Philadelphia-based ministry affiliated with God’s Embassy, said Adelaja’s attackers are looking for a scapegoat for the collapse of King’s Capital and Ukraine’s economic woes. “Sunday never told people to invest in this. He told them basic principles of business and investment. I know my pastor too well. He will give away everything and not take anything from anybody. The biggest problem is that the church is divided in opinions,” Mykhaylyk said.
Born in January 1968 in Ijebu-Ode, Adelaja went to Ukraine in 1986 on a Soviet Union scholarship to study journalism. While in Ukraine, he sought in vain for an evenagelical church and decided to establish his own. He was barely in his 30s. According to his personal website, at 33, he had built the largest evangelical church in Europe. At age 38, he helped win Ukraine’s democracy through the Orange Revolution.Adelaja’s style is described as a cross between hype and slick US-style televangelism. He claims to have been responsible for over one million “salvations in the first eight years” that his church existed and now averages “over 10,000 salvations a year”. His website also claims that his church has planted over 300 churches in over 30 countries; three thousand leaders ministering in the Kiev church; soup kitchens serving 1,500 each day; the church’s television network hits over 100 million viewers in Africa, Europe and Russia; and that Pastor Sunday has “personally written over 40 books”.
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Tunde
16 May 2009 10:12prosecute him He is draging the name of the Lord in the mold
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16 May 2009 10:23The number of Vote acume fom febuary till now is 120 compere to the population the country’s population i.e the coffident is not there
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16 May 2009 10:25Nigeran’s voice will count
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16 May 2009 10:25ok
Sikstrom
18 May 2009 07:13Deputy of the Head of Administration of the President of Ukraine Igor Popov is disturbed at the Minister of Internal Affairs Yuriy Lutsenko’s actions against Sunday Adelaja
What will Lutsenko choose: politics or law?
4th, May a deputy of the Head of Administration of the President of Ukraine, Igor Popov, held a chat-conference on Internet resource “Glavred”.
He answered to numerous issues of the day related to today’s political processes in Ukraine. One of the questions was about the senior pastor of the Christian church “Embassy of God”, Sunday Adelaja, and about public charges of the Minister of Interior Affairs Yuriy Lutsenko against Sunday Adelaja. Igor Popov’s answer was the following:
“I am neither a judge nor a politician. That is why I do not accuse people without having sufficient information and court’s decision. Unfortunately, representatives of some law enforcement bodies use their status for political struggle. Instead of pursuing criminals they speak in mass media.”
Let us mention that accusing an honest and world-respected pastor with fraud, the minister Yuriy Lutsenko broke the main Law of Ukraine, which is the Constitution of Ukraine. Particularly, article 62 of the Constitution prohibiting accusing a man without proving his guilt in court was broken.
“Unfortunately, in most cases such statements are not resulted in any other steps to punish the guilty”, - deputy of the Head of Administration of the President of Ukraine, Igor Popov, added.
Indeed, the like official violations have become a practice of some Ukrainian politicians. However, these violations of law enforcement bodies can be equated with a crime, because mentioned agencies are to protect the law and the nation.
These events show that Ukrainian society cannot come back to the past. There is no place in politics for officials who ignore the principles of democracy.
We would like to believe that the President of Ukraine, Victor Yushchenko, as a guarantor of the Constitution will react to the actions of the minister Yuriy Lutsenko against pastor Sunday Adelaja in order to avoid the like violations against citizens of Ukraine and guests of our country.
Sikstrom
18 May 2009 07:14Political Scientist Olexandr Doniy, from the same party as Luzhenko believes Sunday Adelaja has never been involved with King’s Capital
There are groundless public declarations made by the Minister of Internal Affairs, J. Luzhenko, which have occurred in Mass Media for the last several months. J.Luzhenko dared to slander the Senior Pastor of the Embassy of God church accusing him in criminal involvement and activity of the financial company King’s Capital, accusing him in the fraud specified in paragraph 3, article 37 and paragraph 4, article 190 of the Constitution of Ukraine. Thereby he broke the Law of Ukraine as presumption of innocence is valid in our country until judgment in court, which means that a person is considered not guilty or innocent until the court decision of guilt.
Sunday Adelaja personally objects all charges, declaring that he has nothing to do with the building, activity, and administration of King’s Capital. He considers it as the political strategy of some politicians whose path he has crossed not once.
Recently political scientist Olexandr Doniy, the deputy of the Parliament’s group “Our Ukraine is the National self-defense” in hard talk said: “Logically it is not worthwhile for the pastor of the most influential church (per se timeless project) to risk his authority getting involved in a financial pyramid (its quick and huge profits end up by escape of the founders or general managers)”.
Olexandr Doniy, who is from the same party as J.Luzhenko, declared that he did not see any documents proving accusations of Sunday Adelaja, and he also added that personally Pastor Sunday Adelaja with his members of the church have the right to find out in the Ministry of Internal Affairs on what actual grounds afore mentioned accusations are brought. As experience shows (the case of Boris Kolesnikov) in most cases such accusations are not proved. In 2004 the Ministry of Internal Affairs with J.Luzhenko incriminated to Boris Kolesnikov acquisition with shares extortion of the business center “White Swan” (Beluy Lebed). The politician spent several months in pre-trial prison. As a result lawyers strived for a discharge of Boris Kolesnikov closing of the criminal case in the absence of crime in the act.
History of the Ukrainian justice shows that criminal cases widely spread by politicians through Mass Media at the beginning and often during the prejudicial inquiry were closed even without court. So it is possible to forecast that this criminal case incriminated by mister J.Luzhenko against pastor Sunday Adelaja will not be proved legally in court.
Sikstrom
18 May 2009 07:14Sviatoslav Piskun: Lutsenko has broken the Constitution in case of pastor Sunday Adelaja
April, 29, the press-conference on the topic: “Law is one for everyone!” was held by the General prosecutor, national deputy of Ukraine Sviatoslav Piskun.
The previous General public prosecutor of Ukraine expressed his position as to the absurd accusations addressed to pastor Sunday Adelaja by the main policeman of country.
It is known that the minister of internal affairs of Ukraine – Juriy Lutsenko publicly imputed a crime to the senior pastor of the God’s Embassy Church, which was unproved, baseless and illegal as the Constitution of Ukraine provides presumption of innocence before a court’s sentence.
Sviatoslav Piskun strongly objects the accusation, which was brought against pastor Sunday and declared: “We cannot talk about the issue of the pastor without adducing any proof. Moreover I consider the fact that many politicians getting to the TV point at him saying “He is villain” is wrong. It is a straight violation of the Constitution, in which it is written that until guilt is proved in the court (even not during the investigation, but in the court) no one can be recognized as guilty”.
“After all where was this practice taken from? It seems to me that this practice came from 2004, when everyone came out to Maidan and said: “Prison to bandits!” So who are those bandits? They are whoever we point at…” – Mr. Piskun added.
First of all before you name someone a villain, you should prove their guilt. Having received the position of the Minister of Internal Affairs and after all revolution slogans Juriy Lutsenko opened numerous criminal cases, though many of them were not taken to the court, because they were not confirmed in pre-judicial investigation.
There was no court’s sentence for pastor Sunday, but the populist declarations of Mr. Lutsenko are deceiving Ukraine. The Minister of Internal Affairs of Ukraine makes Ukrainian nation lose faith in the power of law and equality of everyone, including officials before the Law.
The General persecutor of Ukraine considers all actions of Lutsenko to be a violation of the Main Law – The Constitution, but the current General persecutor O. Medved’ko does not react to illegal accusations against pastor Sunday accordingly to his responsibilities, and that shows that some internal institutions and certain politicians are joined against the pastor and are not interested in finding the truth in this case.
However it is the Minister of Internal Affairs Juriy Lutsenko who should answer for his consciously planed illegal actions against pastor Sunday Adelaja. Satisfaction has not been abolished in Justice yet.
Sikstrom
18 May 2009 07:15The Minister of Justice does not support Lutsenko’s accusations against Adeladja
The Ukrainian Minister of justice, Mykola Onischyk took part in a press conference on Internet Portal “Obozrevatel” on April 7. The main Ukrainian lawyer expressed his position about the accusations against Pastor Sunday Adelaja and legality of the actions by the country’s Head Police officer.
Among the questions addressed to the Ukrainian Minister of justice was one concerning the accusation brought publicly by the Ukrainian Minister of MIA, Yuriy Lutsenko against the Senior Pastor of the Embassy of God church, Sunday Adelaja.
On the question whether you think pastor Sunday Adelaja is an offender or not, the Ukrainian Minister of justice, Mykola Onischyk answered the following: “For Ukraine as a country to achieve democracy, it is necessary to keep the principle presuming innocence. It means that a person can not be considered guilty or be accused of committing a crime until the verdict of “the accused” is passed. That is the reason why I have to refrain from making comments on this. Also I would like to take notice that any governmental body must adhere to this constitutional imperative. It is possible that the investigation of this criminal case has already possessed certain materials indicative of signs presence of crime, but this information usually is a secret investigation and can not be spread. We have to proceed from that until accusatory sentence is passed and a person considered innocent”.
As it is known, there is still no accusatory sentence against Pastor Sunday Adelaja, but Lutsenko’s loud speeches lead people astray. It is not understandable why the Ukrainian Minister of MIA makes public addresses about Sunday Adelaja before the eyes of the whole country, Ukraine and thereby breaks the Ukrainian Law.
To date the principle of presumption of innocence is known to every student, but as we can see, the Head Police officer does not know that. Provoke indignation that the Ukrainian Minister of MIA who has to watch over the Law breaks it himself. Is it really so, that after all, Lutsenko’s speeches are outright racist manifestations and political orders about Pastor of the Embassy of God church, Sunday Adelaja?
Sikstrom
18 May 2009 07:16LUTSENKO SENT IN HIS RESIGNATION
(the person who was leading the false accusations against Sunday Adelaja)
Yuri Lutsenko has sent in his resignation from the post of the minister of internal affairs of Ukraine and pleads the parliament to consider this matter in his absence.
According to a reporter of the Ukrainian National News Agency this news was announced during a meeting of conciliation commission by the chairman of the Supreme Council of Ukraine Vladimir Litvin, who read the corresponding letter of Yuri Lutsenko addressed to the parliament.