Headline

UK To Deport Popular Nigerian Pastor, Tobi Adegboyega

Published

11 months ago

December 4, 2024

The British Government is set to deport popular pastor, Tobi Adegboyega, to Nigeria after losing his case against deportation at the immigration tribunal.

According to The PUNCH, the UK government had shut down his church, SPAC Nation, after investigations exposed a misuse of funds by the church leadership.

It was gathered that the UK authorities closed the church after Adegboyega failed to properly account for more than £1.87 million of outgoings and operating with a lack of transparency.

However, according to The Telegraph, an immigration tribunal ruled that he should be deported back to Nigeria after investigations.

After arriving on a visitor’s visa in 2005, Adegboyega has lived in the UK unlawfully ever since.

In 2019, the pastor applied for leave to remain under ECHR’s right to a family life.

His application was initially dismissed by a first-tier immigration tribunal before he appealed.

Having been married to a British woman, the pastor claimed deportation would breach his right under the European Convention of Human Rights to a family life and failed to consider his community work with SPAC.

His legal team described him as a ‘charismatic’ community leader of a large, well-organised church who had ‘intervened in the lives of many hundreds of young people, predominantly from the black communities in London, to lead them away from trouble’.

Politicians including former Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, and senior figures within the Metropolitan Police had ‘lauded’ his work, he claimed, but no testimony by them was submitted to the court.

However, the Home Office contended ‘all is not as it seems’ and dragged him before an immigration tribunal.

However, according to the judgment as quoted by The Telegraph, the tribunal said evidences against the Nigerian pastor were taken to consideration.

The judgment reads, “Various manifestations of [Mr Adegboyega’s] church have been closed down, by either the Charity Commission or the High Court, because of concerns over its finances and lack of transparency.

“Former members of the church have alleged that it is a cult, in which impoverished young people are encouraged to do anything they can to donate money, including taking out large loans, committing benefit fraud and even selling their own blood.

“It is alleged that the church leadership lead lavish lifestyles and there have, it is said, been instances of abuse. The [Home Office’s] case before us was that all of this needs to be taken into account when evaluating whether [Mr Adegboyega] is in fact of real value to the UK.”

Speaking at the tribunal, Adegboyega said that claims that his chruch was a cult was unfounded and attacks on him and the church were politically motivated.

He also maintained no one had ever faced criminal charges over his church’s finances, adding that his deportation would breach his human rights.

However, the tribunal was told the Charity Commission concluded “there had been serious misconduct and/or mismanagement in the administration of the charity which was sustained over a substantial period of time.”

The tribunal also found Adegboyega’s evidence to be “hyperbolic in many instances’ and had ‘sought to grossly inflate his influence.”

The tribunal concluded, “We are not satisfied that the good work that SPAC Nation undertakes generally would collapse or even significantly suffer should the appellant be required to leave the UK.

“Weighing all of the foregoing in the balance we conclude that the decision to refuse leave to remain was wholly proportionate.

“Mr Adegboyega seeks to rely on family and private life relationships, all of which have been established whilst he was in the UK unlawfully, and which would survive his return to Nigeria.

“The interference would therefore be limited, and lawful in all the circumstances.”

Headline

Morocco Jails Student One Year Over Gen Z Protest

Published

21 hours ago

October 17, 2025

Editor

A student arrested during Morocco’s youth-led protests has been sentenced to one year in prison, his lawyer told AFP on Friday.

The case marks the first publicly known prison sentence linked to the kingdom’s Gen Z demonstrations, which have been held near-daily between late September and last week to demand social and political reforms.

The student was charged with “participating in an unauthorised and unarmed gathering” and “insulting the judicial police by providing false information”, lawyer Mohamed Nouini said.

“The ruling is unfair, and we will appeal,” he added, arguing that sit-ins did not require authorisation as per a Supreme Court precedent.

The lawyer said his client was arrested on September 30, three days after the protests erupted in the North African country.

According to a report by news website Hespress, citing another lawyer, the student’s arrest was “an unfortunate coincidence” as he was in Casablanca for a family visit.

The other lawyer, Mohamed Lakhdar, told the judge the student had “not insulted” police nor provided false information, telling them he “was just a student”, according to the report.

Hundreds were arrested during the early days of the largely peaceful demonstrations.

Some cities had seen spates of violence and acts of vandalism, while authorities have said three people were killed by police acting in “self-defence” during clashes in a village near Agadir.

The Moroccan Association for Human Rights (AMDH) has said roughly 550 people are facing prosecution on suspicion of joining the protests, with some still in detention.

The organisers of the online-based movement behind the nationwide protests, the GenZ 212 youth collective, remain unknown.

The collective has called for “peaceful sit-ins” on Saturday and demanded the release of those arrested during the demonstrations.

The protest came after the deaths of eight pregnant women during Caesarean sections at a hospital in Agadir.

But protesters have also demanded reforms to the education system and a change of government.
AFP

Headline

Trump Refiles $15bn Defamation Lawsuit Against New York Times

Published

22 hours ago

October 17, 2025

Editor

US President Donald Trump has refiled a $15 billion defamation lawsuit against The New York Times, court documents show, weeks after it was thrown out by a federal judge.

Trump has intensified his long-established hostility toward the media since his return to the White House, and the suit is one of numerous attacks against news organizations he accuses of bias against him.

The Times’ complaint was thrown out in September because District Judge Steven Merryday took exception to its florid writing, repetitive and laudatory praise of Trump, and its excessive 85-page length.

The suit filed Thursday in Florida and seen by AFP runs to less than half the length, at 40 pages.

It takes aim at “false, defamatory, and malicious publications”, highlighting a book and two Times articles.

The lawsuit named the newspaper, three Times reporters and the publisher Penguin Random House as defendants.

It accuses them of making defamatory statements against Trump “with actual malice.”

“The statements in question wrongly defame and disparage President Trump’s hard-earned professional reputation, which he painstakingly built for decades” before entering the White House, the lawsuit says.

The court was asked to grant compensatory damages of not less than $15 billion and additional punitive damages “in an amount to be determined upon trial.”

Trump’s attacks on media outlets have seen him restrict access, badmouth journalists critical of his administration, and bring lawsuits demanding huge amounts of compensation.

In July, Trump sued media magnate Rupert Murdoch and The Wall Street Journal for at least $10 billion after it reported on the existence of a book and a letter he allegedly sent to sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

Paramount settled Trump’s lawsuit over election coverage on CBS News’ flagship show “60 Minutes” for $16 million the same month. He had alleged that the program deceptively edited an interview with his 2024 election rival, Kamala Harris, in her favor.

AFP

Headline

Italian Journalist’s Car Bombed, No Casualties

Published

22 hours ago

October 17, 2025

Editor

A bomb destroyed the vehicle of a prominent Italian journalist overnight, without causing casualties, his investigative television news show announced Friday.

Sigfrido Ranucci’s car blew up in an explosion in Pomezia, near Rome, that also damaged the family’s other car and the house next door, according to Report, which broadcasts on RAI public television.

“The force of the explosion was so strong that it could have killed anyone passing by at the moment,” it said in a statement on X.

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni strongly condemned what she called a “serious act of intimidation”.

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“The freedom and independence of information are non-negotiable values of our democracies, which we will continue to defend,” she wrote on X.

Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi said he had ordered an increase in the journalist’s security “to the maximum”.

He called the attack a “cowardly and extremely serious act that represents an attack not only on the person but on the freedom of the press and the fundamental values of our democracy”.

The Report show is known for its in-depth investigative reports.

According to the campaign group Reporters Without Borders (RSF), Italy ranks 49th in the world in terms of press freedom.

“Journalists who investigate organised crime and corruption are systematically threatened and sometimes subjected to physical violence for their investigative work,” it said in its latest update.

About 20 journalists currently live under permanent police protection after being the targets of intimidation and attacks, it added.

AFP