Soludo Vows Intensified Crackdown as Eight Pastors Arraigned Under Anambra’s Homeland Security Law

By Praise Chinecherem

AWKA, Nigeria – Eight pastors were arraigned before a High Court in Awka on Friday, marking the first major judicial test of Governor Chukwuma Soludo’s renewed offensive against alleged religious exploitation in Anambra State.

The defendants—identified as Peter Chukwu, Chinedu Egwuonwu, Emeka Nankpa, Ebele Nnachukwu, Ekeleme Chris Ugochukwu, Ndubisi Nnachukwu, Miracle Iruoma, and Chukwukadibia Ogwuama—are accused of violating the state’s Homeland Security Law, 2025.

They were produced in court by operatives of the state security outfit, Agunechemba, led by Governor Soludo’s Special Adviser on Security, Ken Emeakayi. The state’s Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Tobechukwu Nweke (SAN), is personally leading the prosecution.

The arraignment is the latest and most visible action in what Soludo has described as a sustained crackdown on “fake pastors, native doctors, and spiritualists” whose activities, he says, fuel criminality and exploit the vulnerable.

Speaking recently at St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Awka, the governor framed the offensive as a moral as well as legal campaign. “The state has commenced an ongoing crackdown on fake pastors who exploit the vulnerable by preaching the gospel of salvation without the cross,” Soludo said. “As I speak now, several of them are already in custody and confessing.”

Court proceedings were ongoing as of the time of this report, with legal observers watching closely to see how the state’s new security legislation will be applied in practice.

Soludo’s vow to intensify the crackdown signals that Friday’s arraignment is unlikely to be an isolated case, but rather the opening salvo in a broader campaign to regulate religious conduct under the ambit of homeland security.