Self-styled ‘Jesus’ of Anambra arrested after claims of raising the dead

An Anambra State-based prophet, Onyebuchi Okocha, who calls himself ‘Jesus of Anambra,’ has been arrested by the State Police Command for allegedly making “false claims of going to a mortuary in the state to resurrect dead bodies.”

According to the state Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), Haruna Mohammed, who confirmed the arrest of the 32-year-old Okocha on Thursday, his arrest came after the state Commissioner for Information and Public Enlightenment, Don Adinuba, had warned the prophet against practices that were ‘criminal and indecent conduct in the name of religion.’

Similarly, the state Ministry of Health had, in a statement on Wednesday, warned hospitals and mortuaries operating in the state against allowing Okocha access to their facilities to carry out his “widely publicised claim and planned magic that he would raise seven corpses from the dead on a given date.”

Read also: Police arrest atheist in Kaduna for allegedly insulting Prophet Mohammed

Okocha, who is the founder of Children of Light Anointing Ministries, Nkpor, in Idemili North local government area of the state, has been involved in a series of scandals, one of which was when he posted a video where he was seen taking his adherents to bathe naked in a stream and offer sacrifices to enable them acquire mystical powers to be rich.

The members, both males and females, were seen in the video with the prophet bathing in a river and making sacrificial offerings of animals and money in the hope of reaping huge rewards from their activities afterwards.

He also gave some of his followers money to invest in their businesses with the promise that their finances would grow and they would return in one year to give thanks.

In another video, Okocha had boasted that he would go to the mortuary of a popular health facility in the commercial town of Onitsha in the state to raise seven dead persons on January 28.

Join the conversation

Opinions

Support Ripples Nigeria, hold up solutions journalism

Balanced, fearless journalism driven by data comes at huge financial costs.

As a media platform, we hold leadership accountable and will not trade the right to press freedom and free speech for a piece of cake.

If you like what we do, and are ready to uphold solutions journalism, kindly donate to the Ripples Nigeria cause.

Your support would help to ensure that citizens and institutions continue to have free access to credible and reliable information for societal development.

Donate Now