… both throw weight behind Soludo’s crackdown on perpetrators
The Anambra State Government’s crackdown on pastors who engage in fake miracles and other fraudulent activities has received the support of the Spiritual Director of Ohaneze Ndigbo Worldwide and President of the World Christian International Ecumenical Center, Reverend Dr. Elias Ekwemmuor, who urged Governor Chukwuma Soludo to sustain and intensify the exercise for a total cleanup.
Speaking to newsmen in Aguleri, Anambra East Local Government Area, Reverend Dr. Ekwemmuor, who urged perseverance in the worship of God, noted that aside from the fact that the problem of fake pastors (prophets) and their activities had been prophesied in the scriptures as a sign of the end times, the ugly trend is also a reflection of the failure of governments at different levels, which has contributed in making people fall prey while seeking solutions to life’s challenges.
Contributing, the Anambra State Chairman of the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria (PFN), Bishop Moses Ezedebego, who noted that pastors cannot stop talking about miracles because they are real, however commended Governor Soludo’s efforts in ridding the state of people who use religion for fraudulent activities, and urged the Governor to, as a father of people of all faiths, extend the full arm of the law to all Christian denominations.
Bishop Ezedebego also urged the state government to work with the identified leadership of different religious blocs for guidance and assistance in ridding Christianity in Anambra of fakes and fraudsters who abound even in the legal, medical and other practices, without oppressing innocent practitioners.
Eight pastors were last Friday remanded in a Correctional Centre after their arraignment before an Anambra State High Court presided over by Justice Jude Obiorah for allegedly hiring paid actors to stage fake miracles, and the Anambra State Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Barrister Tobechukwu Nweke, SAN, who is leading the prosecution, explained that the charges against the defendants are part of the Soludo administration’s efforts to nip in the bud the practice of exploiting vulnerable members of the public through deception.
The offences of wielding fake supernatural powers and using a religious place of worship for the commission of a crime are contrary to Sections 18(3) and 19(1) of the Anambra State Homeland Security Law, 2025, while obtaining by false pretense is contrary to Section 3(1) of the Advance Fee Fraud and Other Fraud-Related Offences Act, LFN 2006.
Credit: ABS Facebook
