Governor Charles Soludo of Anambra State has issued a fresh warning over the activities of fake native doctors in Anambra State, and their influence on youths.
The governor said fake native doctors and prophets deceive young people into taking many risks, including believing that they can evade security checks when smuggling drugs by using charms and talismans.
According to the governor, these native doctors and prophets deceive young people by claiming they can prepare charms that make airport scanners blind to drug trafficking.
“These young people would believe them, and today, many of our people are languishing in jail across the world,” he stated.
Speaking at a political gathering in Awka, the state capital, the governor revealed that 23 Anambra indigenes are on death row in Indonesia, an Asian country, over drug-related issues. He said: “Go to Indonesia, 23 Anambra youths are on death row there for drug-related offences.
Governor Soludo also responded to the protest staged by followers of a pastor detained by the Agunechemba security outfit. The protesters insisted that the pastor was innocent of the allegations against him, claiming he does not prepare charms for criminals. However, Governor Soludo disagreed with them. “We don’t arrest anybody without being sure of what he has done – without having concrete evidence,” he said.
“Some of the self-proclaimed native doctors and prophets cannot even use their so-called powers to improve their own lives. The son of one of them, who is in detention, is a waiter in a hotel in Nnewi. If it were that simple, why didn’t he make his son a millionaire? “That particular pastor also claimed that he is just a content creator. But he has used things like this to deceive our young people that you can become rich without doing any work, as long as you do money rituals. “That is why you see young people who wake up in the morning and retire to beer parlours drinking, hoping to get rich later in life without hard work or preparation,” he added.
The governor said such beliefs were damaging the mindsets of youths in the state, and warned that any native doctor caught making deceptive claims would be arrested
