Enugu NDLEA arrests 130 drug suspects in one year

BY TONY EDIKE

ENUGU—THE National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA, Enugu State Command yesterday said it arrested 130 drug trafficking suspects, including 120 males and 20 females during the last one year.

The command during the period seized 866.567 kg of substances suspect to be Indian Hemp and 33.3 grams of substances suspected to be cocaine.

The Enugu State commander of the agency, Anthony Ohanyere, disclosed this during the celebration of the United Nations’ International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Drug Trafficking.

The occasion which was hosted in collaboration with the traditional ruler of Ibagwa Nike Enugu, Igwe Emmanuel Ugwu, was attended by officers and men of the Nigerian Army, representatives of heads of other security and federal agencies, youth organisations, road transport workers, post primary school pupils and selected opinion leaders.

According to him, the command had also prosecuted and convicted 26 persons with varying degrees of jail terms to serve as deterrent to others in addition to successful counseling of 60 drug addicts.

Ohanyere disclosed that the approach of the NDLEA in the drug war was two-fold, drug supply reduction and drug demand reduction.

He said “With every sense of modesty, I wish to state that the state command gives due attention to both strategies and have recorded modest achievements in our operations in the state. Drug abuse and trafficking cut across international borders hence the approach. So much effort has been devoted in the past in highlighting the physical, psychological and social consequences of drug abuse.”

The theme for this year which is “Global Action for Healthy Communities Without Drugs”, he noted, was drawing attention to direct consequences of drug abuse on human physiology as a way of discouraging people from engaging in drug abuse in order to create a healthy nation.

“A community is made up of people. We can therefore only have healthy communities, when we have healthy individuals whose health have not been impaired,” he said.

via Vanguard