Confirming the invitation by the nation's Internal Affairs Ministry in
an interview over the weekend, Adelaja said the case for which he is
being summoned is about the collapse of a business-King's Capital which
was owned by members of his church, but for which he or the church
administration had no formal or official relationship.
The Nigerian born, Ukranian pastor, Sunday Adelaja who was described
last year by the New York Times as one of the country's "best known
public figures" is facing what is seen by many as trumped up charges in a
country, where another Nigerian young man was recently charged with
attempted murder after he fought to defend himself from the assualt of 4
Ukrainian attackers.
Adelaja who is founder and pastor of what is widely regarded as the
largest church in Europe, The Embassy of the Blessed Kingdom of God for
All Nations in Kiev, Ukraine spoke in an exclusive chat with Empowered
Newswire.
He said he has been summoned by the Ukraine national police, under the
former socialist nation's Internal Affairs Ministry to appear on Tuesday
August 28 on charges bordering on how members of his church ran a
business enterprise King's Capital aground, and also allegations that he
is running a crime organization.
That business may have been worth about $100m, according to Adelaja's church reporting on the case.
Dismissing the allegation as mere political charges that bears no
resemblance to fact, Adelaja said "in Ukraine you don't have to commit a
crime before you are accused, you only have to be targetted."
In the same vein, his attorney, a well-known Ukrainian lawyer, Andrey
Fedur stated also that as far as the law is concerned Adelaja " cannot
be punished, for he does not have anything to do with this case. The
charges are absolutely made up and have no foundation."
According to a New York Times report last year, " Adelaja has built a
vast religious organization under the banner of his church, Embassy of
God. He has become one of Ukraine’s best known public figures," making
him by far a significant leader in the country whose favor politicians
have curried in the past causing them to win victories to high public
positions.
While Adelaja's political battle has been on for over several years now,
since 2009, the invitation to the state police on Tuesday is seen as a
heightening of the case, after some members of the church have been
detained for over two years now.
Besides the Pastor himself is under constant police surveillance and not allowed to travel out of the country
A media commentator and Washington DC publisher, Dr. Segun Olanipekun
writing on the summoning said alongside Adelaja five people have been
accused in the church and those have been arrested by the police ahead
of Pastor Sunday Adelaja's invitation on Tuesday.
According to Olanipekun, "the church fears that this invitation and the
deliberate change of the charge to a criminal one are part of the plot
to jail the innocent pastor as he is seen to be a threat to the present
government."
The King's Capital was formed by some members of Adelaja's church, but
amidst the global economic crisis, the investment company failed and
many investors lost a big chunk of money. While there has been no direct
link to Pastor Adelaja in the management of the company, besides that
the owners are members of the church, the Ukrainian police is said to be
insisting on linking Adelaja to the failure of the company and alleging
criminal acts against the company.
In previous interviews with the police, Adelaja said his questioners
were always asking if he knew the church members who owned the business
and he always answered in the affirmative, explaining that he was the
target of the whole investigation.
It is in the same country of Ukraine that a Nigerian student Olaolu
Sunkanmi Femi has been detained since last November on charges of
attempted murder after he fought to defend himself against white
attackers.
Media reports said last November "eye witness accounts say Olaolu and
his friend who were hurled to the ground and racially abused was able to
get up and grab hold of a piece of glass from a broken bottle to use in
self-defense.
And quoting Nigerian Embassy officials in Ukraine, reports stated that
"it was while he was defending himself that police arrived at the scene
and the Nigerian was subsequently arrested and charged with attempted
murder of five people," who were the original assailants.
Commenting on that case, Adelaja said, "tales like that were not
uncommon in Ukraine, saying "they used to kill Africans like that in the
past."
Nigerian Embassy staff are said to be involved in the students case,
while Adelaja's trials is also drawing wider international ripples, with
many petition drives online fighting the pastor's cause. One of the
petitions on ipetition.com
titled "Racial and Religious Persecution Against Sunday Adelaja," the
petitioners noted that "this is a textbook case of xenophobia and
discrimination on religious ground."
In addition that petition also noted that the heightening of the
offensive against Adelaja may not be unconnected to the forthcoming
elections in the country. According to the petition, the
current persecution "is a systemic effort to discredit, persecute and
incriminate Pastor Sunday Adelaja from his work as the spiritual
leader...in order to dissuade votes in favor of the opposition."
Adelaja himself, while speaking with Empowered Newswire by phone over
the weekend acknowledged that there are currently political moves in
place trying to negotiate with him.
Said he," they are trying to solve the problem politically, but we can't
go public as yet on the terms, they are afraid the people may back the
opposition."
Since the country's Orange revolution that spurred it effectively out of
communism, Adelaja and his church has become a very critical force in
the emergent political landscape of Ukraine. In Kiev, the local Mayor
and the city are known to be very friendly with him, while even the
country's Attorney-General Mykola Onischyk has been known to speak up
for him, defending his rights to innocent presumption until proven
guilty.
But it is the Internall Affairs and the police that is being systematically used against the Nigerian-born pastor.
It is well known in Ukraine that in 2004, members of the church took an
active part in the events of the orange revolution, which resulted
in Pastor Sunday Adelaja being declared a persona non-grata to Russia by
then President Vladimir Putin, accused "of being a voice and a herald
of western value systems," in the old USSR, Communist state.
Also in 2007, Victor Yushchenko, the former President of Ukraine
reportedly informed that the Russian government that Adelaja's church
in Ukraine, "is the biggest threat to its political dominance that it
held over the country."
Empowered Newswire
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