The couple was scheduled to attend a prayer conference in the capital city, Lusaka, yesterday.

Zambia Immigration Department public relations officer Namati Nshinka told local media, “The Department of Immigration at Kenneth Kaunda International Airport on Thursday, 4th May 2017 refused entry to Prophet Uebert Angel, a Zimbabwean national, pursuant to the Immigration and Deportation Act 2010.

“Prophet Uebert Angel, who is the founder of Spirit Embassy, a Pentecostal ministry in Zimbabwe, was travelling from the United Kingdom in the company of his wife and two others, aboard an Emirates flight.

“He arrived at Kenneth Kaunda International Airport at around 15.00 hours where he and his entourage were refused entry and subsequently made to return to the UK on the same plane.”

Good News Church spokesman Mr Rikki Doolan confirmed the deportation.

“What I can assure you is that the conferences that were pencilled in for Friday, the 5th, and Saturday, the 6th of May, will still go ahead as planned, and Prophet Angel will be live on Miracle TV. He will lead the conferences as planned because no one can stop the work of God, not even a government. “Prophet Angel is an apolitical leader, he is a Christian leader not aligned to any political party but God. He had a visa to enter Zambia, but was told of stringent conditions which he refused to comply with and opted to go back to Britain.”

A source in the church told The Sunday Mail: “Angel is being accused of pouring a lot of money into opposition leader Mr Hakainde Hichilema’s presidential bid last year. But he says he has nothing to do with HH.”

Prophet Angel, whose church was previously known as Spirit Embassy, migrated to the United Kingdom in 2013 after being caught up in a legal storm over a US$300 000 Bentley Continental vehicle.

He later made an out-of-court settlement with the Harare businessman who had pursued his arrest.

Last month, Prophet Angel made a surprise visit to Zimbabwe for his church’s prayer conference. sunday mail zimbabwe