The UK government has shut down Salvation Proclaimer Ministries Limited, (SPAC Nation) run by flamboyant Nigerian pastor, Adedapo Adegboyega popularly called Pastor Dapo over fraud allegations.
The London church was wound up in the public interest in the High Court on Thursday, 9 June, 2022 before Judge Burton and an Official Receiver has been appointed as liquidator of the company.
The court heard that SPAC Nation was incorporated in 2012, a charity set up to advance Christianity. Much of its charitable work was based in London, working particularly with vulnerable people, youth, and offenders. Initially, the church group received positive reviews and media attention.
But by late 2019 SPAC Nation was subject to media scrutiny following allegations by former church members they had been financially exploited by senior church personnel. The Insolvency Service received complaints about SPAC Nation before instigating its own confidential enquiries into the church group’s activities.
Investigators interviewed one of the company’s directors, Adedapo Olugbenga Adegboyega, who was also known as Dapo Adegboyega or Pastor Dapo. During interviews, Mr Adegboyega said that the church group had over 2,000 members and 200 ordained ministers and pastors but failed to provide any supporting information.
Further enquiries found that SPAC Nation either failed to comply or only partially complied with statutory requirements, including providing data to support claimed donations, and accounting records in support of £1.87 million of expenditure. The company’s financial statements in the two years to 31 December 2019 set out £610,000 of rent expenditure.
However, the company did not have a single base of its own and would hire venues across London to hold services, at significant expense. Salvation Proclaimer Ministries Limited was wound-up after the court concluded the company operated with a lack of transparency, filed suspicious or incorrect accounts, and was insolvent at the time of the hearing.
Meanwhile, the pastor has since returned to focus on his church in Nigeria.
