By Brave Dickson
The Rivers State Command of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has revealed the statistics of its achievements for the last three quarters of 2019 with a total arrest of 168 suspects and Rehabilitation of 25 drug dependent persons.
The Command also seized 156.93kiligrams of cannabis, 0.0682kilograms of cocaine, 0.3789kilograms of heroine and 33.651kilograms of psychotropics making a total of 191.028kilograms of various illicit drugs during the period under review.
Speaking with our correspondent, the state NDLEA Public Relations Officer, Mr Emmanuel Ogbumgbada who described illicit drug activities as a global challenge said: “Basically the activities of NDLEA revolves around drug supply suppression and drug demand reduction which covers arrest. seizure, conviction of drug peddlers and rehabilitation of drug dependent persons.
“For the first three quarters of 2019, from January to September, the Rivers State Command of NDLEA has successfully arrested 139 males and 29 females totalling 168 drug peddlers in Rivers State.
“We have also successfully seized 1.028 kilograms of drugs comprising cocaine, heroine, cannabis sativa and other psychotropical substances such as tramadol, coding and so on and so forth.
“The command also successfully rehabilitated 25 drug dependent persons (23 males and two females) and had discharged them back to their families to continue to contribute to the development of the society.
“The command also succeeded in convicting four drug peddlers during the period under review.
“First we must understand that drug problem is a global challenge. The entire world is facing drug problem. So it is not only a Nigerian thing.
“So despite the effort put by international community, drug problem still persists. But that is not to say that the efforts are not yielding fruit.
“It is impossible right now to eradicate drug activities completely because we have nefarious people in our society that always want to smile home with money gotten from illegal drug business.
“So while government and well-meaning individuals are working hard to see that this problem goes away, Peddlers are also working hard to ensure that they continue to do their illegal trade.
,”However, in Nigeria and Rivers State specifically, we engage in the activities of arrest, seizure, conviction and then of course rehabilitation which I have said earlier.”
