A traditional medicine practitioner, Dr Ramas Asuzu, has called on the Anambra State government to clamp down on fake native doctors, saying they are mostly the cause of insecurity in the state.
Soludo recently signed into law the new Anambra Homeland Security Law, which among other things plans to check the activities of native doctors, including subjecting them to proof that they have the powers to make one rich, and other claims of being powerful.
But Asuzu, while reacting to the law at a press conference in Nri, Anaocha Local Government Area, said what people do not understand was that money ritual is not part of Igbo traditional medicine practice, and that such charms involve human parts, and usually attract human lives.
He said it would surprise the governor that far too many families in Anambra have such charms, and that there was need to sanitize the system.
He said: “The governor may not know that almost every house in Awka has oke ite (money ritual charms). All the people doing cyber crime and the rest all have oke ite, which is not supposed to be.
“Oke ite is not traditional Igbo medicine, it is a condemnable act, both heaven and earth condemn it. What people do not know is that every Oke ite has human parts in it, and any medicine that requires human parts, or made to attract much money always takes lives. I condemned it even before the governor created this new law.
“I thank God for giving us a governor like Soludo. I have been warning native doctors to stop all these money ritual. I have been warning native doctors throwing money about, it is an eyesore, and it is leading people into criminality. As if I knew, I have been condemning this and saying that one day government will look into the matter. They should be careful because what these people are doing is abuse.”
He however warned against clamping down on genuine native doctors, and canvased the establishment of a traditional medicine practice board to sanitize the system.
“What I’m saying is that government is against using traditional medicine practice to aid evil, criminality, money ritual, killing people for money ritual a d others.
“So I believe the first thing the governor will do is to inaugurate traditional medicine practice board to checkmate who is who in these practice. Most of these people doing this things are fake. They did not swear with ofo. I’m the Akaji Ofo Igbo and I know what I’m saying, I know everything about ofo, and if they took oath with ofo, they will not go about doing these things.
“Since 2001 when I came back to Anambra, I organized a seminars on traditional medicine, I called various traditional herbal practitioners and held a seminar for them. In Lagos, I was a member of board of traditional medicine but when I came here, I saw that they are disunited. I called them together, but to my surprise, the recognized herbal practitioners are ignored and riffraffs are called by government and without informing the real practitioners.
“Native doctors have a law guiding them. Before you become a native doctor, you have to be sworn in with ofo, and you swear that you will not aid a thief, you will not do evil medicine. This is something that I have been preaching against.
“I have a social media handle where I have been preaching against the one they call oke ite, I have been saying these for governor to take action, so now I’m happy that it seems like the governor heard what I’m talking about.”
He commended the governor for his strides in infrastructural development in the state and also his current move to curtail insecurity.