Anambra State Governor, Prof. Chukwuma Charles Soludo, has revealed that 23 indigenes of the state are currently on death row in Indonesia for drug-related offences. The governor made the shocking disclosure on Wednesday while addressing a group of defectors from the All Progressives Congress (APC) to the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) in support of his re-election bid.
“Go to Indonesia, 23 Ndi Anambra are on death row there for drug-related offences,” Soludo stated with concern.
He attributed the alarming situation to the deceptive influence of fake native doctors who convince unsuspecting youths that they can evade airport security systems through charms and fetish practices.
“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,” he said. “These young people believe them, and today, many of our people are languishing in jail across the world.”
Soludo warned that anyone caught promoting such dangerous and deceptive practices would be arrested, adding that many of the self-proclaimed native doctors lack credibility and live in poor conditions themselves.
“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?” he queried. “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).”
He lamented that such beliefs are distorting the mindset of many young people in the state, turning them away from hard work and into hopeless expectations.
“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.
While clarifying that his administration is not opposed to traditional religion or worship, Soludo emphasized that it would not tolerate individuals using spiritual claims to commit fraud and promote dangerous ideologies.
“We are not against traditional worshippers; what we are against is people who are doing dangerous medicines and charms. We have always known those who are into traditional practices—they were about the most upright people then. But what these new crop of criminal native doctors are doing is deceit, and we will not allow that to continue,” the governor declared.
Soludo reaffirmed his administration’s commitment to intensifying its clampdown on the promoters of Oke Ite and other fraudulent get-rich-quick schemes that endanger the lives and future of the state’s youth.
