Police to partner with herbalists in battling ritualists, kidnappers

November 25, 2016 6:33 PM

The Ogun State CP has called on herbalists and traditional medicine practitioners to help the police.

Ahmed Iliyasu

In a desperate bid to put an end to kidnapping and ‘human parts business’ in Ogun state, the state Commissioner of Police, CP,

Iliyasu made the call at a workshop organised by the Police Community Relations Committee, PCRC, for the alternative medicine practitioners in Sango Ota on Thursday, November 24, Daily Post reports.

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According to him, they could assist the police by regularising their practice, carrying out membership registration to avoid quacks and screen their clients to be sure of the legality and genuineness of their needs.

Declaring the one-day workshop on Effective Policing: Role of Traditional Medicine Practitioners, open, Iliyasu said: “The only way the police can succeed in providing adequate security for lives and properties is to maintain a cordial relationship with the citizens.”

The police boss also urged the people of Ogun to help the police with valid information.

On the cooperation with the herbalists, he said, “We have concern for the security of lives and properties. For us to carry out effective policing we need firsthand information.

“There are some people who believe that the only way they can survive is through criminal activities; we will hunt them down. We have got a new police, which is ready to protect the rights of the people.

“We are here to make Ogun State stable, sanitise the society and say no to brutality. Make sure your hands are clean: regularise and formalise what you are doing.

“Help us to make the state free of kidnapping, cultism and dealings in human parts. Assess your clients to ascertain the genuineness and legality of the help they seek from you.

“If you observe anything suspicious, contact the police and whatever information you give will be kept in confidence and do not settle the matter at the corner. The era of pranks is over.

“We are tired of reports of imams, pastors and herbalists caught with human parts or defiling teenagers in the state,” he added.

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Other African countries such as Zimbabwe, Cameroon, to name a few have embraced the use of witchcraft in battling social vices within their communities.