The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), will partner with Nigerian Universities with a view to intensifying the battle against abuse of drugs and illicit substances in the country, particularly among the youths.
The Kwara state Commander of the NDLEA, Muhammad Bashir Ibrahim, disclosed this in Ilorin, the Kwara State capital, while fielding questions from journalists.
Lamenting that the schools are yet to formulate any policy against drug abuse, Ibrahim said the State Command of the Agency has taken their advocacy to several higher institutions, especially in the capital city of Ilorin, adding that: “We are going to partner with the schools in order to formulate policies that would help to curb the prevalence of drug abuse on their campuses.”
He said: “As at the moment, none of them have it and we want them to have it, we should have a Drug Use Policy in schools, especially in higher institutions.”
The Commander stressed the need for the schools to organise seminars that would bring all the stakeholders in the institutions onboard, including the students’ leadership, and both the academic and non-academic staff.
“They can do that by bringing all the actors in the school environment together, both students through their leaders, the Academic staff and the non-academic staff, probably with a day or two days seminar and by the time they are coming out of that seminar, they would be able to come out with policy within the school,” he added.
On Transborder Drug Trade, Ibrahim said the Agency is doing its best to checkmate the menace through constant patrol of the Nigerian border, assuring the people that they are now getting positive results.
He added: “Most of the arrests that we have been making have been on the road, vehicles were intercepted when they were trying to bring in illicit drugs into Kwara State and we were able to track down the receivers of those drugs in the State.”
Ibrahim also spoke on the efforts of the Agency to successfully rehabilitate drug users, noting that the users are now being enrolled in skill acquisition programmes such as shoe making, bag making, soap and detergent making in order to make them productive members of the community.
He, therefore, appealed to the state government and other stakeholders to join hands with the agency in completing its ongoing rehabilitation centre so that drug users would be kept there for proper rehabilitation, counselling and reformation.
The Commander also enjoined parents to properly monitor the movements of their children and wards in order to ensure they don’t join bad groups.