*23 executive bills, 14 motions
*’No ‘okeite’ without human parts’, lawmaker says in support of incoming legislation against harmful native doctor practices
By Sylvia Kodilichukwu, Enugu
The Speaker, Enugu State House of Assembly, Rt. Hon. Uche Ugwu, said that the Assembly passed 23 executive bills and 14 motions during the 8th Assembly’s second session.
The Speaker disclosed this during plenary that ended the second session of the 8th Assembly and ushered in the third legislative session, which kicked off Thursday, June 12, 2025.
He also disclosed that some of the impactful bills passed into law included the Enugu State Electricity Regulatory Bill; New Enugu City Management Bill and the Enugu State Geographic Information System (EGIS) Bill, among others.
According to him, a total of 14 problem-solving motions were received, and 12 restored in the affirmative, due to the Assembly-labored legislations, with these including the dismounting and removal of road blocks mounted by the military along Ugwuonyeama/Ninth Mile Road and the stoppage of Federal Road Safety Corps officials from operating on state roads instead of federal roads.
Earlier during the plenary, a bill seeking to provide internal security titled: ‘A bill for a law to provide for the maintenance of Internal Security, Vigilance and Order in the State and for Other Connected Purposes, House Bill No.b7, 2025’, passed second reading.
Lawmaker representing Nkanu West state constituency, Hon. Iloabuchi Aniagu, in his contribution, emphasized that when passed, the bill would reduce insecurity in the state by 60%.
He noted that the bill would end the crisis between traditional rulers and Presidents-General (PGs) of town unions as to who should oversee security in communities.
His words: “If the bill is passed, it will reduce insecurity up to sixty percent and it will also stop the PG and the Igwe dragging who should be in charge of security in their community.”
He posited that the bill, when passed, will make landlords and hotel owners to put surveillance cameras in their assets to check and track criminals, adding that it would also stop white garment church leaders and native doctors from taking undue advantage of the citizens.
The member representing Igbo-Eze South, Hon. Harrison Ogara, while appreciating the bill, said that it came late, stressing that it was something that should have been done years ago to check evils men commit in the name of religion or traditional medical practice.
He lamented that had such law been in place, incidents such as the killing of four children of the same parents in his constituency by a so-called man of God and that of the native doctor that buried people alive at Ezeagu, would not have taken place.
“I rise to support the bill. It is timely, but, left to me, it came late; but no time is late. It is a waiting time bomb that would consume everybody,” he noted.
“With the bill, there should be a circumspection of how people should practice their religion,” he explained.
The member representing Ezeagu constituency, Hon. Chima Obieze, supporting the bill, lamented that it should have been enacted before now to check crimes.
He pointed out that the bill needs to check the activities of fake native doctors and also churches that commit crimes in the name of God.
Hon. Okechukwu Aneke, representing Udi South constituency, lamented that the rate young men were getting into traditional worship and kidnapping in order to make quick money, is “very alarming.”
He suggested that anybody found with human parts should be arrested, no matter where such person obtained the parts from.
“He is a killer. There is no ‘okeite’ without human parts,” he stressed.
