The Anambra State Government has commenced the registration of native doctors and allied practitioners in the state to sanitise the sector.

The state Commissioner for Information, Paul Nwosu, stated this in Awka, on Wednesday.

Nwosu said the decision was part of the resolutions reached at the Anambra State Executive Council Meeting, held at Government House on Tuesday.

He disclosed that the move followed a discovery that some of the native doctors were aiding criminals in the state by providing them with “protective” charms.

He said, “Having discovered that some native doctors provide charms with which the criminals operate, it has become necessary to enumerate and register them as practitioners, categorised into herbalists and spiritualists.

“While the 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 as kidnapping, extortion of ransom and beheading, etc.

“Where they are found culpable in such crimes, it will be easy to fish them out from the register.”

Nwosu also said, “It has come to the attention of Anambra State Executive Service that the lands of many community secondary and primary schools have been massively encroached on by some communities and developers.

“This is unacceptable and the government is seriously looking to recover these portions of land; as part of measures to achieve this within the ambits of the law, the government is seeking to quickly amend land laws so that land grabbing will be criminalised,” he added.

The commissioner also noted that ANSEC had set up a committee to review payment claims by contractors used by the previous administration to ascertain if the contracts were awarded in line with due process and if they were completed or not, among others before payments would be considered.