By Brave Dickson
The Rivers State Command of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has admitted to the fact that illicit drugs are on the increase in rural communities.
The state NDLEA maintained that such drug increase is expected in rural communities because the command has been very tough on drug dealers at the urban centre of the state.
Speaking with our correspondent, the Public Relations Officer of the state NDLEA, Emmanuel Ogbumgbada attributed the lack of logistics as the command’s challenge.
His words: “The problem of proliferation of drugs into the rural areas is expected because NDLEA has tightened its belt at the urban area.
“A lot of those drug dealers that ran away from the urban areas have gone to the rural areas to establish themselves.
“However, we have not just left these drug dealers at the rural areas alone, we are still chasing them.
“In Rivers State, NDLEA has four commands which are sited in Bori, Ahoada, Etche and Bonny to cover the rural areas of the state.
“Though logistics is one of the reasons why these commands are not covering the rural areas adequately.
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“Some area commands don’t have vehicles to go for operations.
“When these commands get reliable intelligence, they come to request for vehicles from the state headquarters to execute such operations and return the vehicles.
“Sometimes two or three area commands used to need a vehicle and because we have just two vehicles at the state headquarters, one or two commands will have to wait for the other command to return the vehicle.
“If we have enough logistics, we will be able to take these drug dealers head-on and win the fight against illicit drugs.
“So, we hope that government will equip us more to enable us dislodge drug dealers and consumers at the grassroots.
“Again, we also need to intensify sensitization because sometimes a lot of them go into drugs because of ignorance and peer pressure.
“If someone is meant to know the dangers of going into drugs, even when he is under pressure, he will have the opportunity to make choices.
“And in most cases, when people are better informed, they will tend to make the right choices and we will still need vehicles to go for those campaigns.
“We will also need the community people to cooperate with us by mobilizing their people and invite us to come and talk to them.”
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