Medical professionals have taken to social media to share unsettling accounts of alleged voodoo attacks encountered while providing patient care, with some claiming that dark forces stalk hospital wards.
VICTOR AYENI
writes that amid these claims, some medics believe, such narratives undermine the scientific foundation upon which medical training is built
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As a Chief Nursing Officer at a teaching hospital, Mrs Funmilayo Omolayo carries with her the weight of decades of experience in Nigeria’s healthcare system. With over 30 years spent across various facets of clinical care, her long exposure to the suffering, survival, and mysteries of human life has sharpened both her outlook on life and her attention to the smallest details.
“The field of healthcare is where you truly come into consciousness of the supernatural, even though you’re professionally trained not to focus on it,” she told
Saturday PUNCH
, her voice steady with caution.
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After reading through the flood of comments beneath recent social media videos, where doctors and nurses recounted alleged spiritual attacks during or after caring for certain patients or their relatives, Omolayo paused. Then, with the care of someone weighing every syllable, she chose her words carefully.
“I have seen clear examples of phenomena that defy scientific or logical explanations. I have seen patients who had been written off medically spring back to life and confound doctors.
“At the same time, I have also seen people who were clinically observed to have improved, yet suddenly deteriorate and eventually die. So, yes, there is a limit to what science can explain or solve, and there comes a point where you have to concede that certain things are beyond medical knowledge,” she explained.
Omolayo, who identifies as a Christian, noted that although she had not been directly attacked by voodoo, she recalled an incident in which a particular ward in the hospital where she worked was believed to be haunted by malevolent spirits.
“It wasn’t something we liked to share with outsiders, but that particular ward had strange spiritual occurrences. Nurses who worked the night shift told me they had to engage in spiritual warfare from midnight till dawn.
“They described feeling a strange, cold presence hovering around. I also heard that some patients were having hallucinations, but such psychosis is commonly seen in the Intensive Care Unit,” the matron disclosed.
Findings by
Saturday PUNCH
showed that ICU psychosis, a disorder in which patients in an intensive care unit or similar setting experience a cluster of serious psychiatric symptoms, is often given spiritual interpretations in Nigeria.
According to MedicineNet, ICU psychosis can be caused by environmental factors such as sensory deprivation (like being in a room without windows or isolated from family and friends).
Constant disturbances, including noise from hospital staff checking vital signs and administering medication at all hours, are also major triggers. Experts further highlight that continuous exposure to light, stress, disorientation, pain, critical illness, and medication side effects can all contribute to hallucinations and psychosis in patients.
‘Settle your village people’
In a video posted on June 7 and seen by
Saturday PUNCH
, a TikTok user, Dr D (@gynemedics), advised patients to first settle their ‘village people’ before undergoing surgery.
In Nigerian parlance, “village people” is a colloquial term referring to witches, malevolent spirits, or ancestral forces believed to operate from rural areas but capable of exerting influence even in urban centres.
In the video, Dr D warned intending patients, “Every spiritual problem and every spiritual baggage you have, please go for deliverance, see your pastor, pray and fast before you come to the hospital, especially if you’re coming for surgery.
“I knew a man once who was operating on a patient and said an invisible hand gave him a knock on the head for operating on that person. I don’t even want to share my personal stories. Especially for you, Nigerians, settle your village people before surgery,” said the TikTok user, who identifies in his bio as a medical doctor and specialist in obstetrics and gynaecology.
While many comments on the post supported the doctor’s perspective and endorsed his advice, others expressed scepticism and criticised his stance on alleged supernatural attacks targeting health professionals.
Nigeria is predominantly made up of Muslims and Christians, but traditional religious beliefs, varying across over 300 ethnic groups, also play a significant role in the country.
The belief in both benevolent and malevolent spirits whose activities shape the physical world, including witches as agents of these forces, is common across religious lines.
As a result, unexplained phenomena, particularly those not clearly accounted for by science, are frequently attributed to the activities of witches or evil spirits.
In a follow-up video posted last week in response to his critics, Dr D, who has over 51,000 TikTok followers, described a scenario involving a critically ill patient brought to a teaching hospital and referred to the ICU.
“The relatives would then consult a babalawo or someone involved in diabolical practices, and they would be instructed to do something so the patient’s death could be transferred to one of the medical or nursing staff.
“Some would pretend to drop money on the floor. That actually happened in my presence. I warned the woman not to pick it up. Some of us, by God’s grace, have discernment. So I asked the alfa who dropped it to retrieve his money, because whoever picks it up is the one who dies.
“There was a particular royal father in the ICU. His condition was critical, but we were managing him. Yet, people who were on the verge of being discharged from the ward were the ones dying, while the man himself survived,” the medic claimed.
He also recounted the story of a patient who delivered her baby through a caesarean section, but according to him, one of the babies was found to be “flattened.”
“The father of the lady later came to tell me, ‘Well done, doctor. You’re a man of God. That lady they brought to your hospital, someone has used her for money rituals.’ He disclosed that where he was coming from, they told him someone sat on the baby and flattened him.
“You may say these are tales by moonlight, but I know what happened to me and my nurses after that surgery. You’d feel strong and energetic while performing the surgery and caring for the patient, but afterwards, you’d suddenly start shaking, and you’d begin to treat an illness you know isn’t curable by injections,” Dr D added.
Medics, clerics differ
Reacting to the videos, a cleric, Pastor Daniel Okunoye explained that the work of healthcare providers shares a nexus with that of clerics to help people find healing, and this, he noted, would inevitably attract negative spiritual attacks against both parties.
“Although the pastor comes from a spiritual standpoint, health professionals come from the angle of the natural. The knowledge they use to care for patients comes from God. And let’s not forget that sicknesses have their origins. When medics interfere in reversing spiritually sponsored ailments, there will be a spiritual attack,” Okunoye stated.
Also speaking, a Muslim cleric, Ismail Adangba, pointed out that some clerics who adulterate the faith with indigenous practices attract ridicule for Islam.
“If that story in the video is true, then such an alfa is not genuine and doesn’t represent Islam. In Islam, we believe that no soul knows when they will die, and no one can take the death of another. We will all die, but our time to go is in the hands of Allah,” he explained.
“The whole idea of transferring one person’s death to someone else in a hospital through money or whatever is an idea gleaned from Nollywood. Babalawos are priests of Ifa; they are not diabolical persons as portrayed in movies. And there is no concept of money rituals taught in Ifa,” a traditionalist, Morenikeji Agbabiaka, defended.
As the second video went viral on TikTok and X (formerly Twitter), several other health professionals shared their experiences, which they interpreted as having supernatural connotations.
“You are so correct,” a TikTok user named Acharaugo wrote. “I had such an experience as a nurse in a private hospital where I worked, but my doctor was spiritually strong on the other side.
“It was a patient. The man wanted to use one of the nurses to replace himself. He asked me to turn him around to face the wall, and when I held him, my doctor walked in and told me to leave him alone and just monitor his infusion and carry out my duties.
“The doctor called his name and asked him to turn and face the wall himself, or that his children should do that. The man kept pleading that I should turn him, but I ignored him. He passed away around 8 am, shortly after I handed over.”
“I can never forget a terrible experience in my life,” another TikTok user, Kemibabatee, wrote. “A young medical doctor wanted to expel the placenta of a woman after birth, which is standard. But the woman started screaming, ‘Don’t take out my placenta.’
“The doctor thought she wasn’t in her right mind. Immediately, he tried to expel the placenta, he screamed that a snake bit him, and he fell and died. This is real. In hospitals, we see shege. In fact, as a doctor or nurse, you must be spiritually strong in your own way.”
An X user, Michael Nkwa, also narrated that a doctor had treated a woman, despite being warned by one of the nurses about the patient’s case.
“The doctor insisted on surgery, which lasted no less than six hours. It took him all night in a severe battle, but the surgery was successful. He went home, took a shower, and slept forever. That was his end.
“A few minutes into sleep, his wife noticed he was struggling, like someone fighting a battalion, and that was how his life ended,” he wrote.
“If you’re a doctor and you still think this way, just return your licence and stop jeopardising lives. You went to school, got trained in the sciences, but you still believe that someone sat spiritually on a baby. It’s when health workers believe in voodoo and magic over medical science that they start sharing such tales.
“It’s no accident that these superstitious stories always come from Nigeria. The country is facing a crisis, with poor medical infrastructure and unpaid health workers. In such environments, hallucinations are not uncommon because people’s emotions are stretched,” Dr Adeola Adewunmi said.
Another medical doctor, Emmanuel Afagha, commented, “I don’t think any of these doctors making these videos took any postgraduate course in medical ethics. It’s unbelievable what they’re doing.”
Strange experiences
Meanwhile, recounting her experience when her mother was admitted to a hospital, a Lagos-based chef, Biola Agbaje, said that when her mother’s condition deteriorated, the doctor on duty was nowhere to be found.
“That night, the nurses called the doctor, an African American Muslim, for over two hours, but she didn’t show up. During that time, we couldn’t administer injections to my mum either. The syringe just wouldn’t stay in. It kept slipping out.
“The doctor was in the next building, but it felt like forever. When she finally came running in, she was sweating and panting. She said she had seen our calls but couldn’t pick them up, and she couldn’t move her body because she felt the presence of two men in her room.”
“She said they asked her why she wanted to spoil their work. They told her to sit this one out. All the while, she had more than 20 missed calls. We also noticed that the call was failing at some point, so that explained it. The doctor tried her best to help my mum,” Agbaje said.
She recalled that when it was about 3:10 am, and everything else had failed, the Muslim doctor, who had years of experience, told her father that her mother’s case was “not ordinary” and asked them to pray.
With tears streaming down her face, Agbaje said her mother passed on while she was being prayed for.
“Supernatural things sometimes happen,” a doctor, Semiu Olaiwola, said. “I had a colleague who prayed for a little boy who was sick. After her shift, she went home. While sleeping, she reportedly dreamt that a man came to her and warned her not to pray for the boy again. She continued, and guess what, she later developed mental problems.”
Recounting her parents’ experience, an X user, Adebukola, said her father was forced to shut down his private clinic in Idi-Araba village in Oyo State due to spiritual attacks from some residents.
“He said they told him to his face not to treat a particular patient. My mum left the village while she was carrying me in pregnancy and went to Ogbomoso to deliver me because of these evil people.
“After she gave birth, they went back to the clinic, packed all their things, and left the place. My parents told us the story in the 1990s, and that was because we had so many hospital beds at home then,” she wrote.
According to a report on Workplace Violence against Doctors by the Nigerian Association of Resident Doctors, at least 345 incidents of violence against Nigerian doctors were reported in 2022.
It noted that 65 per cent of the attacks were due to patient loss (death); 56 per cent due to patients not being attended to promptly (workload); 41 per cent due to poor communication (workload); and 28 per cent due to inadequate security and surveillance.
Saturday PUNCH
learnt that while physical violence against health workers is well documented, alleged psychic attacks or spiritual harassment from disgruntled people are not readily acknowledged.
“I’ve not had any personal experience with being physically attacked by patients’ relatives, but I’ve seen it happen on many occasions. About the spiritual one, I don’t know, but it’s possible,” a senior medical officer, Dr Paul Anejodo, stated.
Science and the supernatural
Speaking with
Saturday PUNCH
, a professor of Philosophy of Religion at Lagos State University, Danoye Oguntola-Laguda, defined supernatural phenomena as anything that obliterates or causes an infraction to the order of nature.
He clarified that the supernatural could be viewed from the perspective of God or the Divine, and what many people call magic and other forms of power to influence nature.
“Science has proved that nature can be obliterated or infringed upon through another nature. For instance, it was expected that an eclipse would occur at any given time, and science has been able to prove this. When eclipses happen, natural order is infringed upon,” the professor explained.
He further described religion as the worship of supernatural beings that are divine or powers beyond human understanding, adding that these powers attract fear and fascination.
“I don’t see religion from the supernatural angle, but even if we agree with the supernatural construct that says that God is the one involved in religion and also controls it, then we can say even if science tries to heal, it’s only trying to act under the direction or the will of the supernatural.
“To bring all these dimensions together, you’ll now see that there are certain things that medical science wouldn’t be able to solve. When they try right, left, and centre and still can’t solve it, they attribute it to supernatural entities,” Oguntola-Laguda said.
“In answer to the question of whether the supernatural exists or not, I will say yes, it exists, but it depends on which epistemology you are looking at. If you are looking at it from Islam, it’s there; for traditional religion, it’s there; and also from Christianity, you will see it,” he added.
Needle-proof bodies
Some health professionals told
Saturday PUNCH
that there have been instances in which they encountered patients who could not be injected because they had some voodoo on them to protect them from metal cuts.
“I had this elderly patient, who was involved in a road accident, and I was trying to give him an injection, but the needles were bending. He watched me struggle to inject him and eventually asked me and the nurse to leave the room for some time. Of course, we did.
“When he called us back in, and I injected him, including the subsequent procedure, it went smoothly. But my question to him was why he would fortify himself against needles and sharp objects (which seemed to work), yet he still got lacerated by a sharp object in a traffic accident. He gave no answer,” Dr Isaac Bodunrin recounted.
“I once had a patient,” a nurse who gave her name as Mary noted. “He had a severe laceration after he fell from a height, and he needed suturing, but the suture didn’t enter his body. About three sutures broke before the elderly man regained consciousness, and I had to tell him we needed to suture him.
“A few minutes later, the man asked to be sutured. We didn’t know what he did, but it was then that I was able to suture him. I was gripped by fear. The spiritual truly controls the physical.”
Narrating a similar experience, a registered nurse, Nneka Ijele, said a commercial motorcyclist involved in an accident was once rushed to the emergency department where she worked.
“I
wanted to inject him, but he told me to wait. He called one of his brothers outside, and when he came in, he brought a dried leaf out of his brother’s pocket, squeezed it, and rubbed it on his arm.
“He then asked me to start my treatments. He explained that if he didn’t do that, the needles wouldn’t penetrate his skin. He showed me where they had shot him and even cut him with a knife, but there was no tear in his skin. I was shocked,” Ijele said.
Commenting on the trend of medical professionals who seek spiritual explanations for unexplained phenomena, a Nigerian epidemiologist at Harvard University, United States, Dr Ibraheem Abioye, attributed it to mental laziness or a lack of resources to decipher the scientific basis for their observations.
“I don’t believe doctors and nurses should peddle such tales,” he told
Saturday PUNCH
. “They are often unverifiable and frequently flat-out lies. In any case, they do not improve healthcare delivery.”
“Patients and their relatives look to doctors for science-backed therapies. Every time a doctor or nurse tells these tales, especially on social media, it reduces our ability to convince patients and the community of the critical importance of verifiable treatments.”
Arrested deliveries
Sharing her experience on X, a nurse, Olufunmi Ogunlewe, claimed that some pregnant patients in labour could have their deliveries supernaturally arrested.
“When I was in midwifery training, a woman in labour said they had to go and bring a pregnant goat into her house before she could deliver. Immediately she touched the goat, she delivered,” she wrote.
Also recounting her husband’s experience, Mrs Olayinka Bello said her husband, a medical doctor, worked at a health centre in Abejukolo, Kogi State, in 2001.
According to her, they experienced certain strange phenomena, which starkly conflicted with their scientific understanding.
“One notable case was a woman in labour who couldn’t give birth until the nurses went to pour water on the floor so that the women who brought her couldn’t sit.
“Apparently, they had this veil they all carried around. Once they sat on it while seated on the floor, the woman couldn’t deliver. I wonder what joy they get from doing such wicked things,” she said.
‘We need a cultural reset’
On his part, a consciousness theorist, Livingstone Usoro, told
Saturday PUNCH
that the pattern of doctors trusting voodoo over science and blaming illnesses on witchcraft is not culture, but “a deadly, inferior worldview.”
“It’s alarming that Nigerian doctors and nurses trained in science are now retelling hospital experiences through the lens of superstition. A woman can’t deliver until someone stomps the ground?
“A patient only recovers after a charm is removed? These aren’t miracles. They’re distractions, dangerous ones. Let’s be clear: blending medical care with magical thinking is confusion. One that is reinforced in a country already battling some of the world’s highest maternal and infant mortality rates. It keeps us sick, fearful, and frozen in the past.
“When healthcare workers believe illness is caused by witchcraft instead of infection, or that healing comes from rituals rather than treatment, lives are put at risk. This isn’t just about personal belief. It’s a reflection of a national mindset that must evolve. We cannot fix our broken health system with fear, guesswork, and folklore. We need critical thinkers, not stethoscope-wearing spiritualists,” Usoro noted.
He added that the path forward should include real education, accountability, and a public rejection of backwards thinking.
“We must teach science in a way that replaces fear with facts and remind ourselves that progress doesn’t come from charms, but clean hospitals, trained professionals, and functioning systems. We don’t need more ‘spiritual stories.’ We need a cultural reset, starting with how we think,” he added.
Provided by SyndiGate Media Inc. (
Syndigate.info
).
