The Anambra State Government has denied speculation that it was planning to engage the service of traditional spiritualists or native doctors in combating insecurity in the state.
Governor Chukwuma Charles Soludo, in a statement issued through his Chief Press Secretary, Mr. Christian Aburime, described the report making the rounds in the media as ‘mischievous and misleading’.
Aburime noted that while it was a general knowledge that government alone cannot fight insecurity, the story of engaging traditional spiritualists by Anambra State Government to fight insecurity was not true as being peddled by some mischief makers.
He clarified that Anambra State Executive Council (ANSEC) gave approval for the registration of Traditional Medicine Practitioners and to categorize them under Herbalists and Spiritualists with a view to identifying those among them that support and protect criminals.
According to him, the Commissioner of Information, Sir Paul Nwosu, in his statement to the press categorically stated, โGovernment has discovered that some native doctors provide charms with which gunmen operate and it has therefore become necessary to enumerate and register them as practitioners, categorized into Herbalists and Spiritualists.
He added that the Commissioner further explained that โwhile government appreciates the fact that some of them add value to health care, it is also not unaware that some also have helped to imbue these criminals with the dare-devil confidence that has driven them into committing despicable crimes such as kidnapping, extortion of ransom, beheading, etc.โ
The Chief Press Secretary recalled that the Commissioner added that after the registration exercise, where they were found culpable on such crimes, it would be easy to fish them out from the register.
โFrom the foregoing, it is very clear that the government is taking this necessary step as part of its proactive and holistic efforts to curb insecurity in the state.
โTherefore, the news making the rounds that the State Government has engaged the services of traditional spiritualists to fight insecurity is completely false and unfounded.
โGovernor Chukwuma Charles Soludo will continue to do everything possible to ensure that sanity, peace, law and order is fully restored in Anambra Stateโ, he declared.
