A South London-based evangelical Pentecostal Christian organisation, founded by Nigeria-born Pastor Tobi Adegboyega, Salvation Proclaimer Ministries Limited (SPAC Nation), has been shut down by the UK government over a £1.87 million fraud allegation.
The UK government, in an official statement published on its website on Friday, said the church group, founded in 2019, was shut, on the order of a High Court, “in the public interest” over alleged financial mismanagement and lack of transparency in its operations “after failing to properly account for more than £1.87 million of outgoings and operating with a lack of transparency”.
The verdict was delivered at a high court sitting on June 9, 2022 before Micheal Burton, the presiding judge.
The statement read partly: “Salvation Proclaimer Ministries Limited, more commonly known as SPAC Nation, was wound up in the public interest in the High Court on 9 June 2022 before Judge Burton. The 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 UK government stated that the Insolvency Service and Charity Commission received complaints about SPAC Nation, renamed the NXTION Family in 2020, before instigating its own confidential enquiries into the church group’s activities, and when queried, the church failed to comply with statutory requirements, made claims without providing supporting information and failed to deliver adequate accounting records.
The statement further said: “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 inquiries 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.”
SPAC Nations’s liquidation comes following years of allegations by former church members who said they had been financially exploited by senior church personnel.
It was gathered that SPAC Nation, which was insolvent at the time of the hearing, remains subject to a statutory inquiry by the Charity Commission, which is examining financial, governance, and safeguarding matters at the charity.
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