Police seek partnership with herbalists in fight against ritualists, kidnappers in Ogun

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Police seek partnership with herbalists in fight against ritualists, kidnappers in Ogun

In a bid to curb kidnapping and ‘human parts business’ in Ogun state, the state Commissioner of Police, CP, Ahmed Iliyasu, Thursday called on traditional medicine practitioners, herbalists, to assist the police with information.

He said they could assist by regularizing their practice, carry out membership registration to eliminate quacks and also screen their clients to ascertain the genuineness and legality of the help they seek.

Iliyasu made this call in Sango-Ota at a workshop organized by the Police Community Relations Committee, PCRC, for the alternative medicine practitioners in the state.

While declaring open the one-day workshop on Effective Policing: Role of Traditional Medicine Practitioners, the police boss 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.”

He urged the people of Ogun to help the police with valid information, adding that on the cooperation with herbalists, “We have concern for 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, sanitize the society and say no to brutality. Make sure your hands are clean: regularize and formalize 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 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.