Hard drugs usage reaches frightening level in Rivers – NDLEA

National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has raised an alarm over a frightening dimension in the use of hard drugs in Rivers State, and is seeking the assistance of the state government to establish a drug rehabilitation centre in Port Harcourt, the state capital.

Rachael Shelleng, state commander of NDLEA, Rivers command, while decrying the spate of hard drug usage in the state, called for concerted efforts to tackle it and save the youths.

She, therefore, while on a visit to Ipalibo Harry-Banigo, Rivers State deputy governor, solicited the support of the state in the areas of operational vehicles, a conference hall, a rehabilitation centre and sponsorship of awareness jingles to improve the performance of the agency in the state.

She said the NDLEA had arrested 208 suspects in the state, out of which 180 were males and 28 females.

In June, over 80 people were killed in parts of the state through consumption of poorly brewed gin popularly called ‘Ogogoro’ or ‘Kaikai.’

On its part, the Rivers government said it would set up a Drug Control Committee (DCC) to support efforts geared at checking the high prevalence of hard drugs in the state.

The deputy governor said the committee, which will have relevant stakeholders as members, would liaise with the NDLEA to track down peddlers and users of illicit hard drugs in the state.

She told the state NDLEA commander and officials of the agency that “the Governor Nyesom Wike-led administration places premium on the wellbeing of Rivers people, and would do all within its powers to support the NDLEA to save vulnerable youths from destructive tendencies associated with hard drugs.”

She called on parents to always take interest in the affairs of their children, and the kind of friends they keep to ensure they were not lured into illicit drug habit, saying: “We cannot afford to lose our youths through demonic self-indulgence.”

She also called on community leaders, traditional rulers and all the 23 caretaker committee chairmen of the local government councils to enlighten their youths on the dangers of illicit drugs, and to help them regain their confidence, pointing out that crime and cultism were end products of drug addiction.

Also speaking, Ubigha Osika, chief consultant of Neuro-Psychiatric Hospital, Port Harcourt, said the issue of drug abuse was a global phenomenon that required collaboration to tackle, adding that the state psychiatric hospital management was ready to synergise with the NDLEA to end the hard drugs menace in the state.