Chukwuma Soludo, governor of Anambra, says 23 indigenes of the state are currently on death row in Indonesia due to drug-related offences.
Soludo spoke on Wednesday, while addressing members of the All Progressives Congress (APC) who defected to the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) to support his re-election bid.
“Go to Indonesia, 23 Ndi Anambra are on death row there for drug-related offences,” he said.
“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.
“These young people believe them and today, many of our people are languishing in jail across the world.”
Soludo warned against the deceptive practices of some native doctors, noting that anyone who claims to have such powers would be arrested by the state government.
“If he makes one person a millionaire, we will bring Anambra people and line them up. Don’t you want an Anambra where everyone will be a millionaire? I will equally present myself because I need money too,” he said.
“One of the native doctors who is in detention, his son is a waiter in a hotel in Nnewi. If it was that simple, why didn’t he make his son a millionaire?
“One of them that we arrested has sworn that he is just a content creator, yet he has used things like these to deceive our young people that you can become rich without doing any work, as far as you have done oke Ite (money rituals).”
Soludo reiterated the negative impact of such beliefs on young people.
“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,” he added.
The governor clarified that the state is not against traditional worshippers but against those engaging in dangerous practices.
“We are not against traditional worshippers; what we are against is people who are doing dangerous medicines and charms,” he said.
“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. But what these new crop of criminal native doctors are doing is deceit, and we will not allow that to continue.”
Soludo reiterated his commitment to the ongoing clampdown on native doctors promoting oke-ite (get-rich-quick charm).
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