From Juliana Taiwo-Obalonye, Abuja

 

President Muhammadu Buhari, yesterday, rated the danger posed to the country by illicit drugs as worse than those posed by insurgency, banditry and other threat to the stability of the country.

President Buhari made the assertion as he launched the War Against Drug Abuse (WADA), an initiative of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), in commemoration of the United Nations International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Drug Trafficking with the theme: “Share Facts on Drugs. Save Lives.”

The president, who was the special guest of honour at the launch, also charged the NDLEA to intensify efforts at ridding the vast forests of the South West and South-South regions of the country of criminal elements, who had made the places their hideouts, from where they launch criminal onslaughts and farm marijuana.

Represented by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Boss Mustapha, Buhari said: “I am directing the NDLEA to develop a robust risk-communication and community engagement strategy that will not only disseminate the four pillars of the plan to responsible entities, but also deal with destroying production sites and laboratories, break the supply chain, discourage drug use and prosecute offenders as well as traffickers, rehabilitate addicts and enforcement of relevant laws.

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“I want to particularly draw the attention of the agency to the fact that the use of many of our forests as criminal hideouts is because large swathes of cannabis plantations are hidden deep within those forests, especially in the Southwest and the South-South.

“The war against drugs is a war that must be fought by all; it is therefore my pleasure, to declare on behalf of the good people of Nigeria, a War Against Drug Abuse (WADA), not just as a slogan, but a call for civil action for all Nigerians to take active part in this war.

Chairman of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), Brig. Gen. Buba Marwa, on his part, put the value of cash and drugs seized in the past five months since he came on board at over N90 billion, even as he added that over 2,180 traffickers had been arrested, including five drug barons controlling different cartels across Nigeria.

He also revealed that a record 2.05 million kilograms of drugs had been intercepted and seized across the country; and 2,100 drug offenders prosecuted with 500 jailed by courts.

The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, urged the president to give nod to the appointment of 10,000 for NDLEA which he said was currently “understaffed”, “underfunded”, and “ill-equipped.”