Nigerian Pastor Wanted By Putin Narrates How He Escaped From Ukraine With Family

The founding pastor of the Embassy of the Blessed Kingdom of God for All Nations, Ukraine, Sunday Adelaja, on Saturday, announced in a Facebook video broadcast how he escaped from the country before a bomb blew up the bridge to his residence in Kyiv.

Ukraine is currently a centre of military confrontation between its soldiers and the Russian military, over 50,000 people have fled the country while surrounding nations have activated their defense capability in case of any eventuality.

Adelaja, an influential Nigerian cleric who revealed he was on the hit list of Russian President Vladimir Putin, on Friday disclosed that the bridge leading to his residence was bombed.

Adelaja has a single church congregation of above 10,000, in Kyiv.

On Saturday, he said he had fled the country two days before part of his residential area was shelled by missiles.

In the process of escaping, he walked,ran, and joined the queue like everybody else.

According to Adelaja, he was able to get American intelligence that he was among the elites in the country that Russian president Putin had earmarked for elimination under the guise of “de-nazifying” Ukraine and removing its current regime.

“This is the first time I and my family have been able to have a place to put our head in the last 48 hours. We’ve been travelling, some times walk, run, sometimes we are in the car, standing in long queue of people who want to escape for their lives in Ukraine.

“I wanted to stay back and send my wife to get out of the country if necessary, but then I got an information that in the few days, that was two days ago, the Russians were going to enter Kyiv. And from the American intelligence, we got to know that they have a list of people for elimination. This is not ordinary people but it is for influencial people, people who have public opinion and i am on that list. And I know that I am on that list because I was already a persona non grata (not welcome) in Russia since 2005. I’ve been a personal enemy of Putin for close to 20 years now. He’s banned me from going to Russia. Anyway, that’s another story, so I know I will be on that list,” he said.

Adelaja explained that the leadership of his church forced him to leave the country and before leaving, he hid people in an underground bunker under his apartment.

He called for prayers for Ukraine but did not reveal where he is hiding.

“But before i left, we were able to gather some African students in my house; some people live with me and some people came to join. We have underground bunker in my house now; so everybody are in the underground bunker. I would have lived there , stayed back but when I was told that I am in the list, all our leaders in the church and people said i must live.

“So, I have to quickly arrange for myself and pastor Bose to go to a safe place. So as I am talking to you right now, we are in a safe place. I will not give you more details than that but the most important thing is that we are no more in that place where they bombed, that bridge leading to my house they bombed. We escaped before then otherwise we would not have been able to escape, the shelling is just all around our house.

“We just want to let you know that we are safe. So, your prayers should keep on going for alot of people, Ukrainian citizens, foreigners, students, families. Just keep on keep on praying for Ukraine,” he said.