Arrest of fake pastors: Preacher backs Soludo, says families have been ruined

The Senior Pastor of Rhema Deliverance Mission in Awka, Anambra State, Dr Amaechi Nwachukwu, has expressed support for the recent crackdown on fake pastors by Anambra State Governor, Prof Chukwuma Soludo.

The state government arraigned eight pastors on Friday for violating the Anambra State Homeland Security Law, alleging that they staged fake miracles to attract members.

During a public event in Nise, Awka South Local Government Area on Saturday, Soludo reiterated that all eight pastors had confessed to staging their miracles. He pledged to continue the crackdown, as he has done in the case of native doctors.

In his Sunday sermon, Dr Amaechi Nwachukwu, an orthopaedic surgeon and Chief Medical Director of Princeton Specialist Hospital in Awka and the Head Pastor of Rhema Church, Awka, backed Soludo’s actions, stating that fake pastors are ruining lives.

He said: “I take time to teach you every day about not getting deceived, but it is now taking the Anambra government to point out fake pastors to you. This is something you can do by yourself if you take your Bible and our teaching seriously.”

“The Bible says if you are not careful, they will deceive the very elect. That is why we teach you to follow basic principles, but the problem with many Christians is spiritual laziness. You don’t want to follow God’s direction; you want already made ones where they will feed you with fake prophecies.”

“These people confuse Christians in their operations and mix up tars and weeds, and many people don’t know the difference. They fill you with fake ideologies, targeting your pockets. They do everything to deceive you because they do not fear God. In fact, the God they preach is not the real God they believe in. They worship a different god from the one they tell you, and anything that will make them achieve their needs is what they tell you.”

Nwachukwu said such fakes have ruined many families with their prophecies, and one major way to detect them is that they show no compassion at all.

“Their major trait is impatience and lack of sympathy. Tell them it is the only money you have for children’s feeding, they tell you to go and bring it. They make it look like you must pay God to do something for you.”

“You go to them for cure of headache and they give you cancer. You must desist from going to them.”

“I keep talking about it because so many of you (his congregants) are victims. If you know what they do to unsuspecting women and children, you will cry. Sometimes children disappear from their churches.”

“Very soon the government will start arresting not just the pastors, but those who attend those churches because it takes two to tango.”

He concluded that joblessness among most pastors is the reason they resort to such scams.

“It is joblessness that makes these people rely on swindling people. The greatest pastor in the Bible was Apostle Paul. He had a job and he was into tent making and that was the job that sustained him, not the gospel he preached.”

“Some of these people have no other job except preaching to you, yet they want all the expensive cars. You can only excuse those who are into full‑time ministry because they become so busy, but even at that they must confine themselves to the salaries that the churches pay them.”