NDLEA in Gombe made about 234 arrests of drug abusers in 1 year – Commander
Story from Najibullahi ADAMU
The National Drugs Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has disclosed that it arrested no fewer than 243 drugs abusers in Gombe State from March last year to date.
The State Commander of the Agency, Mrs Sylvia Egwunwoke, made the disclosure on Tuesday in an interview with journalists in her office, where she explained that out of the arrested suspects, 224 were males and 19 were females.
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She revealed that Gombe has the highest prevalence of drugs’ abuse in the northeast adding that about 17 per cent of the state’s population are into drugs addiction.
“The prevalence of drug usage in this state is quite high, Gombe is the highest in the northeast. It is about 17 per cent of the population.
“Since I took over, I came with the zeal and the mandate to sanitize this great state. When I took over till now, the command has arrested 243 suspects comprising of 224 males and 19 females”, she said.
The NDLEA commander noted that parts of their efforts to tackle illicit drug usage in the state are prosecuting the traffickers and rehabilitating the users through counselling and treatment.
According to her, some parents bring their children who are addicted to drugs willingly to the rehabilitation centre of the agency, assuring that they are capable of transforming them within a few months.
Sylvia, therefore, warned patent medicine stores against selling psychotropic substances pointing out that only pharmaceutical companies are licensed to sell them with prescriptions from hospitals.
“They are not licensed to sell psychotropic substances. They can sell paracetamol, they can sell malaria tablets. But these ones, the law is saying they should not sell except the pharmacists. So you cannot even take your prescription from the hospital and walk into patent medicine stores”, the NDLEA commander cautioned.
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