Anambra State Governor, Chukwuma Charles Soludo, has raised concerns over the growing number of young people from Ndi Anambra falling victim to deceitful native doctors, especially those involved in drug trafficking and ritual practices.
According to DailyPost, the governor revealed that “23 Ndi Anambra are on death row in Indonesia for drug-related offenses,” attributing this tragedy to the dangerous influence of fake spiritualists who promise invincibility through charms.
Soludo added that these self-styled native doctors deceive young people with claims that they can prepare charms capable of blinding airport scanners, thus allowing drug traffickers to pass undetected, “These native doctors will deceive you that they will prepare a charm that when you carry drugs and enter the airport, the white man’s scanner will go blind,” he stated, expressing deep concern over the fate of the victims. “These young people believe them and today, many of our people are languishing in jail across the world,” he added.
The governor also called out individuals who claim to have supernatural powers to make people rich without labor.
He challenged anyone making such claims to prove it. “Let me tell you, if you see anyone who is professing to have the powers to make people rich, tell us, we will arrest him and bring him to Awka. If he makes one person a millionaire, we will bring Anambra people and line them up. Don’t you want an Anambra that everyone will be a millionaire? I will equally present myself because I need money too,” he said.
Soludo gave real-life examples to illustrate the deceit. He mentioned a detained native doctor whose son works as a hotel waiter in Nnewi. “If it was that simple, why didn’t he make his son a millionaire?” he questioned.
He also cited another arrested individual who claimed to be just a content creator, yet had misled young people into believing that money rituals (Oke Ite) could bring wealth without effort. “That is why you see young people who wake up in the morning and retire to a beer parlour drinking, hoping to get rich later in life,” he lamented.
While reaffirming his respect for genuine traditional worshipers, Governor Soludo clarified that the state’s crackdown is not on cultural beliefs, but on criminal elements hiding under the guise of tradition. “We are not against traditional worshipers. What we are against is people who are doing dangerous medicines and charms,” he explained.
He distinguished true traditionalists from the current crop of deceitful practitioners. “We have always known those who are into traditional practices, they have things they believe in, and they were about the most upright people then. Those were people who believed that if you did the wrong thing, you could be killed by the gods of the land,” he said. “But what these new crop of criminal native doctors are doing is deceit, and we will not allow that to continue.”, he added.
