NDLEA claims 50% of Nigerian students do drugs
About 50 percent of university students in and off campus are into drugs, the Area Commander, Metropolitan Operation Station Minna, Niger state of the Nigeria Drugs Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), Hamisu Mohammed has said.
The area commander stated this Wednesday in a public lecture delivered in Minna organised by the students’ wing of the Coalition of Northern Group (SW-CNG) Niger state chapter.
Representing the Niger State Commander of the NDLEA, Shehu Gwadawaba, the Area Commander said the global prevalence of drugs use by students is 5.6% while that of Nigeria is 14.5% and 10.4% in North Central region of Nigeria, according to recent study released by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crimes (UNODC).
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Mohammed explained that the high prevalence of drugs use in Nigeria campuses has been of great concern to the NDLEA, which had prompted series of raids in university campuses.
He said: “For instance, we have carried out several raids in Gidan Kwanu where the Federal University of Technology, Minna is located and I can tell you that 8 out of every 10 people we picked are students.”
He explained that the Agency has discovered that students have metamorphosed for the commonly known as Cannabis Santiva to drugs refined from cannabis called ‘loud or kolos’, adding that, “we also discovered that some of the students were graduating to drugs dealers in campuses and we swung into action to nip this in the bud.”
He said that the agency has been working in collaboration with students’ union bodies to implement primary measures to curb the drug menace ravaging students.
Also speaking, the chairman of the event and former Vice Chancellor of Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida University, Lapai, Professor Mohammed Nasiru Maiturare, described the theme of the lecture, “Building Responsible Students Leadership: Combating Drugs Abuse, Thuggery and Hate Speech” as apt, considering the menace of drug abuse among students.
