REPORTER: UCHE NDEKE
The Anambra State government has arraigned 8 pastors for allegedly hiring paid actors to stage fake miracles in their churches.
The Attorney General of the State, Mr Tobechukwu Nweke SAN , who is the prosecution counsel arraigned the eight pastors before an Anambra State High Court in Awka.
The clerics were remanded in prison custody after the arraignment, with the matter adjourned to the 15th of this month for hearing and determination of any bail applications.
They were arraigned for offences bordering on fake supernatural powers and using places of worship for criminal activities, contrary to Sections 18 sub section 3 and 19 sub section 1 of the Anambra State Homeland Security Law, 2025, as well as obtaining by false pretence contrary to Section 3 sub section 1 of the Advance Fee Fraud and Other Fraud Related Offences Act, 2006.
Some of the pastors were charged alongside their agents, who allegedly procured vulnerable individuals paid to pretend they had received miraculous healings and deliverances during church programmes.
The proof of evidence filed by the prosecution counsel include video recording of their confessional statements, captured on a flash drive, which the state says it will rely upon at the trial.
In an interview the Attorney General, Mr Nweke confirmed that the confessional statements form a critical part of the evidence already against the accused.
He described the charges preferred against them as part of the state government’s ongoing efforts to end the exploitation of desperate citizens through staged miracles ,a practice he likened to the activities of fake native doctors which the government is also vigorously prosecuting.
