Timothy Olanrewaju, Maiduguri
No fewer than 3,722 girls have been trained on zero tolerance for drug abuse and consumption in Borno State.
The training and sensitisation came following recent alert by the police and the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) on increasing cases of drug abuse by youths in the state.
Chairman of the Network of Civil Society Organisations (CSOs), in Borno State, Ahmed Shehu, disclosed at a two-day lecture and music’s concert in commemoration of the United Nations Day Against Drugs Abuse And Illicit Trafficking in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substance, in Maiduguri, that the girls were selected from two communities of Bulabulin and Gwange in the state capital once controlled by Boko Haram.
Shehu said, “We have sensitised a total of 3,722 girls in two communities of Bulaburin and Gwange wards of the metropolis, on the drug abuse and its effects.
More women that indulged in illicit activities were coming out to seek for intervention against the norm of Borno people,” Shehu said at the event organised by the North East Regional Initiatives (NERI), a non-governmental body for peace in the zone.
He said the sensitisation was aimed at discouraging people especially youths from drug abuse. He said the group was targeting the reduction of young girls from taking substance.
The NDLEA, on Monday, in Maiduguri, had raised the alarm on the increasing cases of drug abuse and consumption.
The agency said it seized 545.369 kilograms of solid drugs and 22.2 litres of cough syrup with codeine between January and June, the figures, it said, surpassed 517,423 kilograms confiscated by the agency in 2017.