By Jude Michael
Anambra State Governor, Professor Chukwuma Soludo, is not taking the war against insecurity in the state lying low.
The Governor who has through the Anambra Homeland Security Law begun a clampdown on native doctors through the launch of a new security outfit, Agunechemba, has arrested over 30 native doctors who are said to have been preparing charms for criminals.
The native doctors are also known for the preparation of local charms, knowns as Oke-Ite, which supposedly attracts wealth to youths.
But Soludo in a recent meeting at the Governor’s Lodge, Amawbia, said there was a nexus between drug, activities of native doctors and crime in the state, noting that what his government planned to do was to deal with the root cause of insecurity.
He announced that samples had been taken from all confiscated ‘Oke-ite’ charms for pathological analysis, stating that if traces of human blood were found in them, the owners would face severe consequences.
He said: ‘These native doctors have deceived our youths enough. You will see them throwing bales of money at functions and they have become the new role model of our boys.
‘Some indigenes of Oba came to see me in Lagos when I visited, big businessmen, professors and the rest, and I told them that a native doctor in your village claims to be the address of your community. What it means is that the native doctor is the most well-known person in the community, where as we have respected people like these.
‘They (native doctors) are the root cause of insecurity in society today. They make you believe that they can make charms for you and you get a crown without a cross. They celebrate success without hard work. They have ruined a lot of our young boys.
‘They make youths believe they can prepare charms for them, and they will carry drugs abroad and will not be detected. You carry the drug and you enter the airport and the white man’s scanner will go blind and you will go with your drug.
‘Because of this deceit, many of our young people have remained in several prisons across the world. They arrest them for drug and lock them up. When you get arrested, they tell you it is because you failed the rules of the charm. They can even tell you it is because you winked at a woman at the airport; that was why the charm failed. Deception.
‘One of the native doctors from Okija who we arrested, who is always boasting of making people rich under four days, his son is a waiter in a hotel in Owerri. Why is his own son working to earn a living if he can make people wealthy without work? Deception.
‘As early as 8am, you see youths in beer parlours drinking, and the next thing is they are thinking of how to make quick money, then they go for kidnapping or other vices.’
The Governor said one of the native doctors recently arrested in the state was the one preparing anti-gunshot charms for criminals.
‘He is from Kogi State. When we arrested him, he started begging us that he would like to be preparing the charms for our security men. He is in our custody undergoing interrogation, and he must let us know who his clients are.
‘As I speak to you, many native doctors in Anambra are on the run. They have run away, and we will not relent. We will continue to go after them,’ the Governor said.
