Col. Milland Dixon Dikio (rtd), the Interim Administrator of the Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP), says substance abuse among youths in the Niger Delta fuels militancy in the region.
Dikio, while speaking during a visit to the Chairman of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), Brig. Gen. Muhammad Buba Marwa (rtd), in Abuja, said urgent steps should be taken to curb the emerging threat, DAILY POST reports.
In a statement signed by his Special Adviser on Media, Mr Nneotaobase Egbe, Dikio noted that the partnership between the NDLEA and PAP would drastically reduce drug abuse cases and reposition the minds of the youths more productive ventures to sustain the peace and development in the region.
According to him, “We have a unique challenge in the Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP) that of managing ex-militants; we call them ex-agitators. We want to take active measures to not only manage the present ex-agitators but to pre-empt and stop the pipeline that leads to deviant behaviour and militancy.
“It goes without saying that some of these people get their motivation by using or abusing substances, so we want to key into what you are doing on the arrest side and learn what we can do on the prevention side”.
On his part, Marwa promised that the NDLEA would partner with PAP to curb the intake of hard drugs and other banned substances by youths in the Niger Delta.
Criticising the wave of drug-induced crime in the country, especially among youths, Marwa said the collaboration between PAP and his agency would focus on sensitisation and counselling programmes as a major preventive measure to curb the menace.
He explained that criminals used drugs to embolden themselves before embarking on any criminal activity, which is on the rise due to poverty.
While lauding the willingness and commitment of Dikio to make the Niger Delta, a drug-free zone said the NDLEA boss said 80 per cent of drug users in the country only required counselling.
He noted that records established by a United Nation’s study showed that one in seven persons between ages 23 to 64 abused drugs in Nigeria.
According to him, “We have also found that the students, bandits, kidnappers, rapists, down the line youths, militants, use drugs, and we will be very happy to collaborate with the Amnesty Programme.
“We don’t need to wait for people to become drug addicts first; the majority have not used drugs, others have tasted but are not addicted to it. The ex-agitators are also normal human beings that would like to marry and raise families.
“The advice we give that will deal with the drug problem is to find some source of income for them through skills acquisition and, if it is affordable, some kind of wage structure.”
