17,647 Offenders Arrested, 2,369 Jailed, 154,667.339kg Drugs Seized – NDLEA

The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA, has said it arrested 17,647 drug offenders, jailed 2,369, and seized 154,667.339kg of drugs from barons.

 

Newsonline reports that the anti-drug body, Chairman, Buba Marwa, said the arrests of 17,647, convictions of  2,369, and seizure of 154,667.339kg of drugs from barons are between  January 2021 and May 2022.

 

NDLEA also stated that among the jailed drug dealers, were 10 drug barons, who have been on the run from the long arm of the law.

 

The agency said the conviction and jailing of 2,369 drug offenders and seizing  154, 667.339 kilograms of drugs were from January to May of the year 2022.

 

In a press conference in Abuja, to mark UN Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking, Buba Marwa stated that “in 2021, about 8,000 drug users were counseled and rehabilitated, in most cases through brief interventions while an additional 3,523 were also counseled and treated at NDLEA facilities.”

 

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“This year’s theme for the UN Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking beams its light on an area of the drug problem that has until recent years been on the backburner of the drug discourse.

 

“For us at the Agency, we are abreast of time and trends as shown by the priority accorded treatment and care,” Buba said while speaking on Monday, in Abuja.

 

Marwa said “while the world has been grappling with the illicit drugs conundrum for over three decades, changing dynamics in the decade have forced a paradigm shift and re-adjusted perspectives that allow for drug narratives to be seen as exacerbating factors in multidimensional situations.

 

“That has brought to the fore the imperative of looking at the drug problem through the lens of public health and also tackling such as a broader social problem rather than through the conventional, narrow, criminal matter approach.

 

”It has, therefore, also become prudent to initiate mechanisms and measures that are proactively extenuating. In our case, the National Drug Control Master Plan, NDCMP, 2021-2025, launched last November, has incorporated components that tend to the health concerns of drug abuse.”

 

Buba Marwa disclosed that NDLEA will establish a Call Centre, which will be operated by professionals, experts in counselling, psychotherapy, psychology, and psychiatry to offer drug users counseling 24/7 for free.

 

Buba said the Call Center service will help in fighting stigmatization drug users go through, which hinders them from seeking help.