By Joe Chukindi The Anambra State Government says it has commenced the registration of native doctors and allied practitioners in th...
By Joe Chukindi
The Anambra State Government says it has commenced the
registration of native doctors and allied practitioners in the state to
sanitise the sector.
The state’s Commissioner for Information, Paul Nwosu, who
disclosed this to journalists in Awka, the Anambra State capital, on Wednesday
said the decision was part of the resolutions reached at the Anambra State
Executive Council (ANSEC) meeting, held at the Government House on Tuesday.
He said the development followed a discovery that some of
the native doctors were aiding criminals in the state, who have adopted the
name, unknown gunmen, by providing them with assorted charms.
Nwosu said: “Having discovered that some native doctors
provide charms with which gunmen operate, it has become necessary to enumerate
and register them as practitioners, categorised into herbalists and
spiritualists.
“While government appreciates the fact that some of them add
value to health care, it is also not unaware that they 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.
“Where they are found culpable in such crimes, it will be
easy to fish them out from the register.”
The Commissioner also announced plans by the state
government to extend the removal of illegal structures defacing the environment
and endangering lives beyond Onitsha in the coming weeks.
He said, “It has come to the attention of ANSEC that the
lands of many community secondary and primary schools have been massively
encroached on by some communities and developers.
“This is unacceptable and government is seriously looking to
recover these portions of land; part of measures to achieve this within the
ambits of the law, government is seeking to quickly amend land laws so that
land grabbing will be criminalised.”
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