Religious and Racial Persecution against Prominent Black Preacher, Sunday Adelaja in Kiev, Ukraine
Pastor Sunday Adelaja, an African immigrant and missionary from Nigeria, is the Senior Pastor of the Embassy of the Blessed Kingdom of God to all Nations with headquarters in Kiev, the capital of Ukraine. The Embassy of God which was founded eighteen years ago with seven members is today considered to be the largest evangelical Church in Europe; all to the glory of God.
Over the years, the Embassy of God and Pastor Sunday Adelaja have grown in capacity and influence due to the conscientious work of advancing the Kingdom of God in Ukraine and around the world. Attesting to this is the fact that the erstwhile elected Mayor of the City of Kiev, along with about thirty percent of the Kiev city council members are from the Church. Clearly, this has not gone unnoticed by the political elite of the Nation.
International Influence
Pastor Sunday's influence have also been noted by both Christian and mainstream media around the world such as the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Washington Post, Reuters, Associated Press, CNN, BBC, and German, Dutch and French national televisions. The Wall Street Journal called him “A Man with a Mission” set out to save Kyiv and the former Ukrainian President Viktor Yushenko acknowledged his very visible and strong advocacy for democracy in Ukraine during the Orange revolution and after. His selfless efforts in helping the underprivileged in Ukraine have drawn the attention of world leaders including former President of the United States, Bill Clinton who invited him to the Clinton Global Initiative; former Mayor of New York City Rudolph Giuliani, Israeli Prime Minsters, Ariel Sharon and Benjamin Netanyahu. Pastor Sunday has also been accorded the rare privilege to lead prayers on the senate floor of the United States, the Japanese senate and also a speaker at the United Nations for three sessions.
Pastor Sunday and the Embassy of God in Ukraine has continually been the subject of varied discrimination and attacks on their faith both politically, racially and otherwise; primarily due to their evangelical stance in a predominantly orthodox nation and more so, a congregation of over ninety-nine percent white Europeans that is being led by an African. This xenophobia has been a subject of debate at the Ukrainian parliament and deemed “a national disgrace” to have a “black man” have such influence and capacity to lead their people.
Racial and Religious Persecution
Approximately four years ago, Pastor Sunday Adelaja was accused of fraud by the Ukraine government in relation to a capital venture company (King's Capital) that went broke as a result of the global economic meltdown. In addition to several members of the Church who have been arrested and unjustly imprisoned without a hearing for refusing to give false evidence against Pastor Sunday, three others were arrested this week.
After a year of pre-trials preceding over three years of investigations, the Ukrainian government is either unwilling or unable to proceed to trial (due to lack of evidence, even after 4 years of investigation). Having failed to take this case to trial, the Ukrainian government has now decided to charge Pastor Sunday Adelaja with founding, managing and leading a crime syndicate.
On Tuesday August 21, 2012, Pastor Sunday was informed by the Ukraine government that these new charges will be brought against him and as a result have been ordered to come in on Tuesday, August 28, 2012 with the intent of having him placed under arrest.
There is no merit in this accusation and the evidence attests that:
• Pastor Sunday who had no role or interest and was never a part of this business organization was charged along with the owners of the bankrupt company simply because one principal was a member of the Embassy of God Church.
• The next election is in a couple months: it is a systemic effort to discredit, persecute and incriminate Pastor Sunday from his work as the spiritual leader of the Embassy of God in Ukraine in order to dissuade votes in favor of the opposition.
This is a textbook case of xenophobia and discrimination on religious ground against the largest protestant Church in Ukraine and racism towards its founding Pastor; with the latter being a matter of concern even during the recently concluded European cup where anyone of a darker skin pigmentation was cautioned about visiting Ukraine.
Global intervention is needed because all evidence indicates that Pastor Sunday Adelaja will not be given a fair trial (if any) because of his race and faith.
Therefore we are using this medium to bring it to the attention of government leaders who have contacts to the Ukrainian government directly specifically, to make direct calls to the President, Prime Minister and Foreign Minister of Ukraine.
Only a direct intervention of the President of Ukraine, Victor Yanukovych, the Prime Minister and Foreign Affair ministry could stop this injustice against the Senior Pastor of the Embassy of God Church, Sunday Adelaja.
We are informed that he is expected today, Tuesday, August 28, 2012; required to report to the police base where all the other accused individuals in this case have been arrested and detained without any trial yet. Pastor Sunday Adelaja could suffer the same ordeal.