The Anambra State Government has described as mischievous and misleading write-ups and comments suggesting that it is engaging traditional spiritualists in combating insecurity in the state.
Mr. Christian Aburime, Chief Press Secretary to Governor Chukwuma Charles Soludo who debunked the news in a statement in Awka on Wednesday acknowledged that while it was a general knowledge that government alone cannot fight insecurity, it was instructive to note that the story of engaging traditional spiritualists by Anambra State Government to fight insecurity was not true as being peddled by some mischief makers.
Aburime explained that what the state government had said as explained by the Commissioner of Information, Sir Paul Nwosu, was that Anambra State Executive Council (ANSEC) had approved 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.
He observed that the Commissioner in his statement to the press categorically stated, “Government 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 “while 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.”
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.
“From 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.
“Therefore, the news making the rounds that the State Government has engaged the services of traditional spiritualists to fight insecurity is completely false and unfounded.
“Governor Chukwuma Charles Soludo will continue to do everything possible to ensure that sanity, peace, law and order is fully restored in Anambra State”, he declared.
Photo: Prof. Chukwuma Charles Soludo, the executive Governor of Anambra State.
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