By Victor Ogunje
The Chairman, National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), Brig.-Gen Buba Marwa, has disclosed that illicit drugs worth over N60 billion have been seized by the agency in the last two months, which he said confirmed the alarming level of drug abuse and trafficking in the country.
The NDLEA boss gave the startling revelation Thursday in Ado-Ekiti, at a colloquium tagged: “Walk Away from Drugs”, organised by Ekiti State Ministry of Justice.
Marwa lamented that the menace of drug abuse has assumed a universal and more worrisome dimensions in the country, saying: “There is no challenge that is more worrisome as drug abuse in the country.”
The former Lagos State military governor said: “Insurgence, kidnapping and banditry are peculiar to some certain parts of the country, but drug abuse is universal, it has no boundary, no respect for ethnicity or religion.
“The menace is worrisome. Within the last two months, more than N60 billion worth of illicit drugs have been seized and perpetrators arrested and prosecuted.
“If access to drugs is prevented, criminality can be reduced by 50
per cent in the country.”
The NDLEA boss called for concerted efforts by stakeholders to the
campaign against use of illicit drugs among the citizenry, suggesting that parents should henceforth include drug certificate as part of the criteria to give their daughters’ and sons’ hands in
marriage.
The Ekiti State Governor, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, in his address at the meeting, restated the commitment of his administration at reducing drug abuse in the state.
Fayemi, represented by his deputy, Chief Bisi Egbeyemi, urged participants to take seriously the deliberation and come out with implementable plans to rid the society of the menace.
The Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Mr. Wale Fapounda, pointed out that the programme was organized as a result of the alarming cases of criminality being perpetrated because of the use of hard drugs.
Fapounda said: “In most cases, when we are prosecuting offenders through the ministry, investigation would later reveal that the perpetrators committed the offence under the influence of hard drugs. That makes it expedient for all of us to rise against illicit drugs.”
