Anambra State Government has sought partnership with the National Orientation Agency (NOA) in its ongoing war against the enablers of ritual money known as Okite, a charm for indestructibility known as Odeshi, and other negative fetish practices in the State.
The assistance was sought when the Anambra State Commissioner for Information and Value Reformation, Dr. Law Mefor, received the South-East Zonal Director of the National Orientation Agency (NOA), Mrs. Theresa Maduekwe, and her team on a courtesy visit to his office at the Jerome Udoji Secretariat, Awka.
The visit was part of activities marking the Zonal Director’s official familiarisation tour to the NOA office in the State.
The Information Commissioner, who noted that the activities of ‘Yahoo boys’ in the state are mild compared to what cultists were doing, maintained that the Governor Chukwuma Soludo administration has, through the Anambra State Homeland Law 2025, sent a greater percentage of the negative fetish practices enablers packing from the state.
He revealed that the state government will soon embark on aggressive arrests of dubious native doctors propagating the negative narratives that drive young people in the state into such negative fetish practices such as Odeshi, Okite and Aroagbaka.
“They have made our youths to believe that no bullet can penetrate them with their odeshi falsehood, giving them false hope.
“What makes it more scary is that some of the ritualists require human heads to perform their rituals, which are all false,” the Commissioner said.
He urged the leadership of NOA in the country to work towards resetting the behavioral pattern of Nigerians, adding that the people, especially youths, need to be reoriented to change through strong moral suasion, aversion and enforcement mechanisms.
He also enjoined the agency to lend its voice to the ongoing war against all manner of social vices in the state, advocating the need for a committee to work out the modalities for collaboration between his ministry and NOA in the state.
On the issue of the exponential increase in voter apathy among Nigerians, Dr. Mefor blamed the authorities at the center, INEC, political actors and members of the National Assembly, asking them to allow the nation’s democratic governance to work.
The Commissioner hinted that the Anambra State Government is currently working out legislation to prohibit all manner of unauthorized social banquets and other unethical social vices in the state, calling on the leadership of NOA to work towards the direction at the national level in the country.
Briefing the Commissioner and his team on the reasons behind her visit, the NOA Zonal Director for South-East geopolitical Zone, Mrs Maduekwe, said the Information Ministry is a key partner with the NOA, adding that her visit was to seek the support of the ministry in the ongoing crusade by NOA against all deviant behaviors that are not consonant with the nation’s core values.
Describing NOA as the attitudinal and behavior change agency in the country, the Zonal Director appealed to Anambra people, especially youths, to learn good behaviors and drop the bad ones with a view to reducing the unwarranted behaviors among them to the barest minimum.
She pointed out that the agency needs the help of the Anambra Information Ministry, especially in the area of the sensitization program of the agency in its unrelenting fight against voter apathy in the State and the States in the South-East Zone.
She challenged Anambra residents to register, collect their PVCs and vote their conscience on the election day to enable them to have the moral justifications to query the political office holders whenever they fall short of discharging their constitutional mandates.
The NOA Boss called on the people to shun election violence and the politics of hatred and bitterness, stressing the need to sensitize people to understand that their votes can change the country’s negative political landscape for the better.
Earlier, the Anambra State Director of the agency, Barrister Lady Ifeoma Chijioke, revealed that they came to explore better ways to strengthen the old relationship between Anambra State Government and the agency in the State.
The presentation of copies of the new national anthem to the Commissioner by the South-East Zonal Director was the highlight of the event.
