The National Drugs Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has made a seizure of 4,290.471 Kilograms of hard drugs in Kwara state between July, 2018 and June 2019.
This was disclosed by the state Commander of NDLEA, Barrister Dandi Emmanuel in Ilorin on Wednesday at a Press Conference to flag off activities in commemoration of 2019 International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Drug Trafficking.
United Nations had marked 26th June as UN day against Drug Trafficking and the theme for this year Program is “Justice for Health, Health for Justice.”
Emmanuel said that of the total number of seizure made by the NDLEA, 4,213.45 kilograms are Cannabis Sativa while 76.825 kilograms are other drugs which included Tramadol, Valium, Codeine, Effedrine and Caffeine.
The Commander said that although, Kwara was not known for the cultivation of Cannabis,the drug was imported from neighbouring countries through the border and was heavily consumed in the state.
He said, “Although, there is not yet confirmation that Kwara state is among the states known for cultivation of Cannabis, compressed Canabis come to the state from Ghana, Cote de’voir, Lome and Benin Republic through the border and if we don’t want to deceive ourselves, 99 percent of the drugs that come in are consumed in the state.”
He said that the Agency arrested 91 suspects comprising of 77 Males and 14 females while 29 accused persons put under trial were convicted during the period.
The Commander disclosed that the Agency rehabilitated five persons who were re-united with their families adding that 15 others were counseled against the use of drugs.
Emmanuel who said that the Agency was partnering with the state drug control Committee to provide sensitization and advocacy programmes for the people lamented that the command was facing problems of inadequate funding and shortage of Personnel to carry out the function effectively.
He appealed to both the Federal and state government to provide fund and necessary logistics for the Agency to function efficiently.
In her address, Mrs Barrakat Olanrewaju, Chairperson of Kwara state drug control committee said that since the consequences of drug menace affect all the people in the society, “it is expedient that we collaborate to overcome this scourge ravaging the entire fabric of every nation of the World, especially Nigeria.”
She said that the excellent performance of the committee which has collaborated with othe stakeholders in drug control had led to the recognition by the United Nations Office on Drug and Crime (UNODC) to designate Kwara as the pilot state to play a leading role in drug control in the North Central states including the Federal Capital Territory (FCT.)
