In a decisive move that should be applauded across the nation, the Anambra State Government under Governor Chukwuma Charles Soludo has once again demonstrated that leadership means protecting the most vulnerable among us.
Yesterday, the state arraigned eight individuals—Peter Chukwu, Chinedu Egwuonwu, Bishop Emeka Nwankpa, Ebele Nnachukwu, Ekeleme Chris Ugochukwu, Ndubisi Nnachukwu, Miracle Iruoma, and Chukwukadibia Ogwuama—before the State High Court in Awka for allegedly violating the 2025 Homeland Security Law.
These men, described as fake pastors, stand accused of exploiting the public under the guise of religion, peddling staged miracles, dubious healing items, and get-rich-quick spiritual schemes that have been linked to broader criminal networks.
The Soludo administration’s broad crackdown on fake pastors, fake native doctors, and spiritualists is not persecution—it is protection.
Let us be clear: this is not an attack on genuine faith or religious freedom. It is a targeted operation against predators who have turned the pulpit into a profit centre and the Bible into a tool for defrauding desperate souls.
The state’s Homeland Security Law 2025 provides the legal backbone for this intervention, and the government’s insistence on proper regulation—including biometric capture of pastors—is a smart, modern safeguard in an age where deception has become sophisticated.
Why biometric capture? Because faith, like every other sector of public life, must be accountable. Not only yahoo boys—the notorious internet fraudsters whose biometric data are now being synchronised across databases to track and deter their crimes—should face such scrutiny. Spiritual fraudsters are arguably more dangerous.
They prey on the elderly widow who sells her land for a “miracle seed,” the unemployed graduate who empties his savings into a fake deliverance service, and the grieving parent who pays for “spiritual protection” that never materialises.
These vulnerable spiritual seekers and worshippers are not statistics; they are our mothers, fathers, brothers, and sisters whose lives are being ruined while we pretend religion is above the law.
Governor Soludo understands what too many leaders ignore: the duty of government is to protect its people from falling into such traps.
When fake pastors operate with impunity, they do not only steal money—they erode trust in genuine religious institutions, empower criminal syndicates (as the law explicitly notes), and undermine the very social fabric the state is trying to rebuild.
By requiring biometric registration, the government creates a verifiable database of legitimate clergy. It separates the wheat from the chaff without banning churches or dictating doctrine. Genuine pastors have nothing to fear; only charlatans who refuse transparency should worry.
Critics may cry “religious persecution,” but let us ask the hard questions: How many families have been pauperised by fake prophets promising overnight wealth? How many young people have been radicalised or lured into crime through these fake spiritual networks?
The Soludo administration has already arrested and detained several such operators, and the confessions emerging are damning. This is not overreach; it is overdue reform.
Anambra is rising, and part of that rise must include cleaning up the religious space so that authentic worship can flourish without the shadow of fraud. Governor Soludo’s approach—combining enforcement of the Homeland Security Law with biometric accountability—is a model for other states.
Not only yahoo boys need to be synchronised in the fight against fraud. Spiritual con artists who weaponise the name of God deserve the same rigorous scrutiny.
The government’s job is protection, not pandering. In standing firm against fake pastors, Governor Soludo is fulfilling that duty with courage and clarity. Anambra’s vulnerable worshippers deserve nothing less.
Pamela O.
Political strategist and Columnist.
