By Emmanuel Uzor
A few days after a protest by native doctors in Anambra State against what they called the stigmatisation and witch-hunting of their members by the Agunechemba security outfit, the group has threatened to submit names of pastors to the security outfit for scrutiny.
Led by High Priest Ikele, the native doctors had accused the Anambra State Government of harassing their members, contending that their constitutional rights to freedom of religion were being trampled upon by Governor Chukwuma Soludo and his security outfit.
They also contended that the state government has not done what is necessary by liaising with them to help identify bad elements among them, insisting that it is a calculated attempt to suppress the traditional religion in Igboland.
Also speaking, one of the members, who gave his name as Mazi Chukwuka Nwankwo, announced that the body has commenced the compilation of a list of fake pastors in Anambra State, alleging that these fake pastors frequent their shrines to seek spiritual assistance aimed at increasing the number of their church congregations.
“Our Governor is preaching ecumenism, which means the union of all religions, and we ask: is the traditional religion not part of this ecumenism?
“What are we talking about here? Those people who hold night vigils and perform miracles are fake, and they come to us to obtain spiritual powers to increase the number of their congregation, and we have always turned them down because it is against our religion to defraud innocent people.
“There are some who go as far as other parts of the country to obtain powers and so-called holy oil that they use in pushing people down in the name of anointing.
“Governor Soludo should send Agunechemba to those crusades and night vigils to investigate what they do in their churches, where they rip off innocent people by compelling them to buy holy water, holy oil, and holy handkerchiefs so that people’s businesses might flourish, and people pay huge sums of money to obtain those things, yet they are not paying taxes or levies to the state government,” he said.
Consequent to this growing crisis, some church pastors are said to be making frantic efforts to reach out to security operatives to dissuade them from visiting their churches, though no security operatives have confirmed this.
Similarly, some native doctors have commenced visitations to the suspected churches, issuing warnings that they will be exposed since they have refused to speak out in support of the native doctors after allegedly assisting them to increase the population of their congregations.
“The Anambra State Government should beam their searchlight on all these new-generation churches because they are the worst set of swindlers and also convince us and the public that they are not out to witch-hunt us, the native doctors,” he said.
