By Bashir Mohammed
Kano
The Kano state Commander of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), Garba Ahmadu, yesterday said the Command recorded the seizure of 1.9 tonnes of assorted illicit drugs, 135 arrests, 79 prosecutions, and rehabilitated 92 drugs addicts in the first quarter of 2015.
He further disclosed that success made by the Command so far was not unconnected to the consistent support it is receiving from Kano state government.
Ahmadu noted that proactive measures were taken by the agency before the 2015 general elections, in order to bring the rate of consumption of illicit drugs, particularly, among the youth who were used as political thugs, “and it worked for us as the mop up exercise we did was able to control the rate of drug consumption in the state.
He said: “You know that usually, during festive periods like Sallah, Christmas and even during elections; what the drug traffickers do is to bring in the substances one or two weeks before time; so what we did was to take the war to where cannabis, especially, is being cultivated.
“We had what we call operation-weed-eater in Ondo and Edo states where large farms of cannabis were destroyed. Officers from Kano here were temporally redeployed to those hot states for that operation; and it paid off because when we succeeded in destroying the source, the traffickers would have less or nothing to bring into the states.”
He also commended Kano state government for providing logistics such as vehicles as well as building a rehabilitation centre at Kiru local government area, where repentant drug addicts are taken for rehabilitation, after which they are integrated back into the society.
He added that Kano state government under Engr. Rab’u Musa Kwankwaso also provided a platform which ensures economic empowerment of the rehabilitated drug addicts, who usually undergo different types of skill acquisition programmes, while at the rehabilitation centre.
According to him, Kano state government is also helping out NDLEA in terms of manpower support through the establishment of a special Committee on fight against drug abuse and peddling in the state, made up of NDLEA, Police, Army, Civil Defence, Hisbah, SSS and other security and paramilitary agencies.
