The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), in Adamawa, says it has arrested 296 drug offenders in the last one year.
Mr Femi Agboalu, the state commandant of the agency made this known in Yola on Monday during a news conference in commemoration of the 2022 United Nations Day against drug abuse and trafficking.
He said that the agency had within the period intercepted 3,107.786 kg of hard drugs, saying the feat was achieved between June 2021 and May 2022.
“Our drugs supply reduction strategy has been strengthen as effort had been intensified in arresting and prosecuting the culprits,” he said.
According to him, the offenders comprised of 286 males and 11 female suspects who were arrested for various drug related offences within the period.
He added that 104 male offenders had been sentenced to various jail terms of between six months to four years without an option of fine.
“Our total number of pending cases were 71 out of which we have between secured 51 convictions.
“It is also on record that the command had won the prestigious national Chairman award due to the highest number of conviction recorded”.
He noted that 45 drug users were counseled, treated and rehabilitated within the period while sensitisations lectures against the dangers of narcotics intake had been carried out.
He appreciated the cooperation and understanding of all the stakeholders for their contributions in the fight against the menace and urged them for a sustained collaboration.
“I assure you that there is no hiding place for drug barons in this state, as there is no holds barred in our operations,” he said.
Similarly, NDLEA in Abuja said it arrested over 17,647 offenders, convicted and jailed 2, 369 between January 2021 and May 2022.
The Chairman, NDLEA retired Brig. Gen. Buba Marwa said this during a press briefing in commemoration of the World Drug Day on Monday in Abuja.
The International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking, or World Drug Day,(WDD) is marked on June 26 every year.
Marwa said that theme “Addressing Drug Challenges in Health and Humanitarian Crises” gave the recent global experience with COVID-19 and the prevailing circumstances around the world.
According to him, this year’s theme for the UN Day has beamed the light on an area of the drug problem that has until recent years been on the backburner of the drug discourse.
“For us at the agency, we are abreast of time and trends as shown by the priority accorded treatment and care. In 2021, about 8,000 drug users were counselled and rehabilitated, in most cases through brief interventions.
“We continued the effort in the first five months of 2022, whereby an additional 3,523 were also counselled and treated in NDLEA facilities.
“Simultaneously, we have continued to shut the tap of illicit flow of drugs with the arrest of over 17,647 offenders including 10 drug barons between January 2021 and May 2022;
“More than 2,369 were convicted and jailed within the same period while 154,667.339kg of drugs were seized in the first five months of this year alone,” he said.
Marwa said that the Drug Demand Reduction (DDR) Department had been galvanised and working non-stop to ensure that the health aspect of the drug abuse calculus got adequate attention.
In the same vein, Marwa said that the agency’s policy of Drug Integrity Test was predicated on getting help to drug users suffering in silence.
This he said was because they could not seek the needed health treatment due to social stigma and discrimination.
“This is why in a short while from now; we’ll be unveiling the NDLEA Call Centre.
“This will be manned by professionals and experts in counselling, psychotherapy, psychology, psychiatry and more to offer help to drug users who will make use of our toll-free lines to seek counselling 24/7.
“This will also enable those afraid of stigmatisation to be able to seek help without necessarily being seen or identified by anyone.
“Even as we rev up our drug supply reduction offensive, it is certain that we are not relenting on getting help to those suffering from drug use disorder,” he said.
Also speaking, Mr Oliver Stolpe, the Country Representative, United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, (UNODC) said that UNODC was addressing transnational drug challenges stemming from situations of crisis in the year 2022 World Drug Day celebration.
Stolpe estimated that there might be close to six million persons in Nigeria today that might be with drug use dependency based on 2017 and 2018 data.
According to him, this creates a massive public health challenge.
”Therefore our key policy as on this WDD to the Federal and State Governments, the international development partners as well as candidates in Political offices is not to lose sides of this public crises that is been caused by drug use, ” he said.
Stolpe said that what was required to happen in the immediate future was to mount a credible and comprehensive drug prevention campaign focused particularly on secondary Schools.
He said that there was also need to train teachers in both public and private secondary schools on skill based drug prevention programs.
“This need to be done now if we want to stem the tide of new young people becoming exposed to the issues of drug use and dependency.
“We also need to provide basic counselling services to everyone. This access for drug users and their families that will be provided through the call centres is a critical step in the right direction in this regard.
“We also need to provide more intensive quality treatment to the millions of drug users that live with drug use disorder, “he said.
NAN reports that the weeklong program of activities begins Monday June 20 and ends Wednesday, June 29.
Some of the activities lined up for this year World Drug Day celebration are reflective of the realignments in the approach to the illicit substance problem.
