By Afusat Agunbiade-Oladipo
The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) in Kwara says it has arrested 225 suspected drug traffickers and seized 809,200 kilograms of illicit drugs in the state from January to June, this year.
The acting state Commander of the agency, Odewale Adebimpe, disclosed this while addressing newsmen in commemoration of the year 2023 United Nations Drug Free Day, in Ilorin on Tuesday.
The theme of the event was “People first: Stop stigma and discrimination, strengthen prevention”.
She said during the period the command had secured 57 convictions, counselled 99 inmates while 39 cases were still pending in the court.
According to her, the slow pace of the criminal justice system and reluctance of some judicial officers to visit the full wrath of the law on offenders was a setback in countering narcotics efforts in the country.
She expressed worry over the involvement of students of institutions of higher learning in drug abuse.
The NDLEA commander explained that the command was conducting intelligence-led operational activities to reverse the trend in addition to various advocacy and enlightenment measures put in place.
Adepimpe called on the state government and other stakeholders to support the agency to enable it to reduce drug abuse and trafficking to the minimum.
On her part, the Chairperson, Kwara Drug Control Committee, Mrs Barakat Olanrewaju, called for collaboration of all stakeholders in the fight against drug abuse.
She also appealed to parents to have interest in the activities of their children to prevent them from joining bad groups.
Olanrewaju said that the committee was working with the state Ministry of Education to ban all shops that were selling alcoholic drinks by school gates.
She alleged that they were the ones selling hard drugs to the students. (NAN)
