2nd airport: Anambra gov deserves commendation,

• ●Why we’re after fake pastors, fake native doctors in Anambra

From Obinna Odogwu, Awka

Commissioner for Information and Value Reformation in Anambra State, Dr. Law Mefor, has given reasons why Governor Chukwuma Soludo is building another airport in the state five years after his predecessor, Chief Willie Obiano, built the existing one.

Mefor, in this interview with Sunday Sun, argues that Soludo should be commended rather than criticised. He also spoke on other issues.

The governor is being criticised for building a new airport whereas the existing one built about five years ago by his predecessor is underutilised. Can you justify why a second airport is important at this time?

It is an aerotropolis, not just an airport. A lot of people think it’s just an airport. It’s not an airport because it’s a cluster of facilities. Airport is just one of those facilities. When Obiano mooted the idea of the first airport, so many people considered it an economic waste, saying that Anambra enjoys a very close proximity with Asaba, and that there is no need to build an airport here. It’s the same thing people are saying now without knowing that the new airport, as an aerotropolis, will service not just Anambra, but the entire South-East. Even though every other state has its own airport, this one is so centrally located that a part of Enugu, in fact, almost the entirety of Abia, a part of Imo, will find the second airport more proximate than the ones in their own states. You get the point? So the viability is just there. It’s very viable, and the long-term need for it makes it even more viable. Because by the time it will become obvious that we need a second airport, we already have one, you don’t need to go knocking down buildings and all that to secure land to have a second airport. The best time to give Anambra a second airport was years ago. The second best time is now. And that’s what the governor is doing.

Okay, whatever purpose this new airport will serve, are you saying there’s no way the existing one can serve that same purpose?

You know, this new one, because I told you that it’s an aerotropolis, and it lies side by side with the Anambra Mixed-use Industrial City (AMIC), right? This is more proximate, but that is not even the reason. The reason is that the area is the place approved by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu as a free trade zone. It doesn’t cover Chinua Achebe International Airport, Umueri. You know, the argument that the governor presented to win the approval has to do with that aerotropolis and AMIC combined. So whatever, that place becomes our free export zone. And anything you export from that, from this second airport, will be exported free. That is when you say a place is a free trade zone. But a lot of people, as far as they are concerned, Anambra has an airport already, and Anambra is too small to begin to look for another airport now. There is no development that is required in Anambra today that is not receiving attention; a cross-port, be it road infrastructure, schools, hospitals, anything. Brand new government house, attention to leisure, go to our amusement park, the solution fun city, and the international country club. All these things are going on. So it’s not as if the second airport will be so much of an opportunity cost in terms of what will not be done because of this. No. It will be delivered without Anambra’s development suffering a deficit because of the second airport. When Soludo started the Solution Fun City, people called it ‘janglova’. But that place is raking in billions already. There is no week 10,000 people don’t visit that place. Make out time and go there. And see what is going on there. The place has become a major source of income to Anambra State Government. But people, only a few months ago, thought that Soludo wasted his time there. Our governor is an international economist. Do you understand what I’m saying? He understands these things. He is building Anambra of the next 20 years. It’s not even Anambra of today. The next 20 years. He is, you know, setting out Anambra in such a way as to even prepare the youths that will be the ones to inhabit and inherit that tomorrow. That is why he is doing two or three things to ensure that the youths are prepared for it. He set up the Solution Innovation District to address the issue of digital and tech education, training and development of the Anambra youth. That is already going on. So far, we have trained over 300,000 youths in digital skills. A good number of them are already employed in tech giants like Google, Oracle, Microsoft, and so on and so forth. Products made in Awka here. That is intentional and transformational leadership. That is what Soludo is delivering. Now, for those who don’t want to pursue a big-time education and so on and so forth, he has set up what is called One Youth, Two Skills, covering up to 60 skill areas.

I would like to take you to the war against fake pastors. It’s an extension of…

(Cuts in) It’s the same war. It’s not an extension. It’s the same war.

So what has been the success story so far?

The Anambra Homeland Security Law 2025 has a provision. It has an extant provision that says that if you claim what you are not… Huh? If you claim what you are not… Do you understand what I’m saying? You are liable to a fine or imprisonment or both. Six years, 20 million or both combined. Now, before the signing into law and activation of the Anambra Homeland Security Law 2025 in January 2025, so much was going on here. We were under insecurity. We were under all manner of things. The moral decadence could be felt. Everybody could see it. We could see the advent of things like Okite. Huh? We saw it. We also saw that a lot of pastors, the so-called men of God… When I say pastors, I mean any clergyman. Any clergyman is a pastor, whether you are of Catholic extraction or Pentecostal or Olumba Olumba. Once you’re a clergyman, you’re a pastor. That’s the definition. I notice that each time we talk about pastors, people’s minds go to Pentecostalism. No, it’s every person that is a clergyman or woman. That person is a pastor. A pastor is a shepherd of people around him or her. That’s the simple definition of a pastor. Now, we know that a number of these people were fake and evil. When you hear Okite, it’s native doctors that manufacture it for our youth, right? For our businessmen, for our politicians. Okite. It’s a money ritual. Ogwu ego. And we hear that it also has to do with human sacrifice. Yahoo Plus. You have Yahoo-Yahoo, and Yahoo Plus. You know the difference between Yahoo-Yahoo, and Yahoo Plus? Yahoo Plus has to do with sacrifice. And in many cases, human sacrifice. And we have seen evidence of this in ritual killings we find around. Ritual killing is not for nothing. They want human parts, human vital parts for certain rituals they want to carry out. That’s the fact. That is what led to Oso Soludo. You see, the governor was deeply worried about these things. And he is a very thoughtful person. He does not embark on anything without thinking it through; without bouncing it off some people who should know; and then sharing ideas with them, and so on and so forth. He believes that the correct place to start such a battle over these creators or enablers of crime in Anambra State and the insecurity as a matter of fact, because it’s not just about Ogwu ego. It’s because these evil native doctors and pastors are also empowering the kidnappers, the criminals that are involved in kidnapping; involved in terrorism; involved in all manner of things. So, the governor had to initiate an executive bill. The Anambra Homeland Security Law 2025 was an initiative of Governor Soludo. He sent it to the House via his Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice. It took quite some time for the law to come through in the way and manner the governor envisaged it. Once that bill was signed into law, the state was ready because the Homeland Security Law provided what you may call the governance and legal framework for tackling insecurity and enablers of insecurity in the state.

How long did it take after the law was made before the governor launched Operation Udo Ga-Achi and how helpful has it been ever since?

In fact, the same day it was signed into force was the same day Soludo launched Operation Udo Ga-Achi and commissioned the Agunaechemba. When you hear Agunaechemba, we are actually referring to Anambra Vigilante. Before the law that changed their name came into force, it was called AVG, Anambra Vigilante Group. But this law now rechristened them and called the outfit Agunaechemba. So Agunaechemba is our vigilante, while Operation Udo Ga-Achi is a hybrid security strike force. Hybrid in the sense that it’s not a single security team. It’s made up of our own Agunaechemba and five other federal agencies beginning with the mother security agency, the Nigeria Police Force; the Army, the DSS, the Civil Defence, the Air Force, and even the Navy. They’re all part of Operation Udo Ga-Achi. But you don’t always see all these people I talk about. But when they want to embark on a major operation, you see them in their full compliments. You see most of these forces being represented in the strike force when they are out for a major confrontation with the underworld. You can see in the picture why the law was needed. It was because the kind of crime and criminality that pervaded Anambra before it came into force required that they don’t just go after these people without a legal backing. So, Soludo said look, legal backing first and foremost. And that led to what appeared to be a delay in tackling insecurity in Anambra. It’s because of that law. It took quite some time to be formulated. And then, of course, to procure the equipment, the technology that were needed to make the new security architecture work. We needed a command and control centre. We have one. We needed a call centre. We have one now. And that is why we can tell you, if you see something, say something, call 5111. It’s because there is a centre where you can call 247 and your call will be processed. And if the intel we receive from you is true, you can earn as much as N5 million.

So, that fight against fake pastors and native doctors, where are we now? How many have been arrested?

I don’t know the number now; unless I ask, because arrests are happening every time. Even as we speak, as we conduct this interview, Ken Emeakayi and his boys are up and about, going for these people, wherever they may be. So the number he gave me the last time certainly has changed. That is one level. But I can tell you that we have a lot of them; both the fake dibia and the fake pastors. The fake dibia, you know, people thought that we just have Akwa Okuko Tiwalu aku, Onyeze Jesus and the other one. People thought it was just those three. No. We have dozens of others. And each and every one of them has had their day in court. Or will have, in the case of those that are recently arrested. And the arrest is not abating. We are not stopping anytime soon. We have gotten hold of a number of fake pastors. And you know, people say that government cannot regulate miracles. We are not trying to regulate miracles, please. Let me use this opportunity to correct this. You know, we are not saying that miracles don’t exist. No! We all pray for miracles. But the person in whose hand it is to work or wrought miracles is God Himself. And you cannot command God. He will do it when he wants. Look at what these charlatans do. They will go and recruit people to come and claim that they are sick. That they are crippled. That they are deaf and dumb. That is certainly not a miracle. When a procured individual that is faking to be a cripple now begins to run. It’s contrived. Section 419 of the criminal code talks about obtaining by tricks. It is deceit; because these people were never sick. They were not deaf and dumb. They were not crippled. They were not sick. In that sense, these so-called men and women of God are trying to get the world to believe. They are using these fake miracles they wrought to drive traffic to their churches. So you can see that the Solution Government is not after miracles. We are after miracle fakers; those who fake it. If you fake a miracle, we will come for you. And how do we know that you fake the miracle? Because there is evidence that the person that is claiming to be a cripple was never a cripple. One that is now feigning to be deaf and dumb was never a dumb person. Once we get the evidence, we will use it to process you to court. You will have your day in court. Where have we reached? Very remarkable distance has been covered. But we haven’t even gone halfway. Because we want to be sure that all these fakers of a miracle and okeite; that they leave Anambra for good. If they don’t leave Anambra, we will get them and we will process them to jail. And that way, they will be locked away from circulation for a very long time. That is all we are trying to achieve. And we solicit the cooperation of journalists in doing this. Tell the people what we are after. Not miracles. We are not against miracles. In fact, I need a miracle. Me, as I sit down here. So if I see who can do one for me, I don’t mind. I don’t mind a miracle. But we can only look up to God. Any person coming to claim that he or she is God, we will not wait for God to deal with the person. We will get the law to deal with the person here.

Civil servants in this state have been lamenting about their poor working conditions. What is the government doing to take care of them the way it should?

Well, you know, we are political appointees. For the governor, he has done four years and into the fourth month. What that means is that the second term, he doesn’t even have four years again. He’s three years plus. And he vacates the place for another person. But the civil service itself is permanent. And they have a head of service who is a member of Anambra State Executive Council, ANSEC. It is her job to bring such needs of the civil servants and civil service to the governor and to the executive council. And I’m not aware of any such need that has been brought, that has not been attended to. This year alone, there have been interviews and exams for civil servants; for their promotion. And there has been regular promotion. I know my own staff here were recently promoted. And not only them, across board. I know that even some directors have been interviewed. They sat exams for promotion to become permanent secretaries. And a number of them have been confirmed only weeks ago as permanent secretaries, awaiting posting. So I don’t know where that complaint is coming from. I will refer you to the head of service, to explain these things better. Civil servants who claim that they are not receiving rapid promotions or promotions as and when due, I am not aware of that. It requires further research.

The federal government, I think sometime in May, listed Anambra as one of the states that would witness flooding this year. What is the government doing to prevent that?

Anambra State has a kind of erosion and flood response committee headed by the deputy governor. That level of leadership will show you the level of importance the state attaches to that problem of flood. We are part of the Delta. We may not be Niger Delta the way people see it; but we are part of the Delta. What that means is that Anambra State is below sea level. And whoever is below sea level is prone to a flood and erosion, right? Now, why are we part of the endangered states because of flood? Two things. One is that our relationship with the Lagdo Dam in Cameroon is a huge one. And during rainy season, so that the dam would not break, they release their water up there in Cameroon. Since water must find its level, it will continue along that path until it joins the ocean. And here we are around it. So we share in it. So what we are doing is to regularly meet, watching the water levels, and then sounding the alarm to the communities that usually experience it more. Because once you live along that channel, there’s no way you can escape it. And many of them have those channels as their ancestral homes. So even if you offer to relocate them to any other place, they will not agree. They would want to stay there. So the best the government can do is to help them manage it, you know, by providing, making sure that we ready things like relief materials that would be inevitable. Relief materials like food, like clothing, like blankets, you know such things; particularly food. Because when they are displaced from their homes, and they collect in camps, like schools, and so on and so forth, that are a bit upland, you really have to help with these things. That is one of the things the committee prepares for in advance. And of course, the committee liaises with NEMA, National Emergency Management Authority, in Abuja. We have NEMA office here also. And we all work together. And we receive a lot of information from them. And the state itself, last year, procured a lot of equipment from Japan. And some of those equipments were also donations that came from Japanese government to help Anambra to respond better. What those equipment try to do for us is to help us with water levels. So that we know when water levels begin to rise; and then it helps us to set off the alarm early enough so that people do not remain in harm’s way and lose more, including lives and valuable property. So we are on top of it as always. And that is why you hardly hear that we lost any life because of this; because we work well ahead. Some people evacuate before it becomes too dangerous and too life-threatening. So this is not an exception. We have started the preparations already, knowing that we can’t escape it. And I’m using this opportunity also to call on the federal government to live up to their own agreement with the Cameroon. Because we agreed with Cameroon, as I learned, that if they build a dam, that Nigeria will build smaller dams down the hills so that when they release theirs, we’ll have ours to soak in, so that what will now continue further down will be very, very minimal. But this has not been done. So it has to be done. Because up to 24 states in Nigeria are suffering seriously because of it, particularly Anambra State.