By Abayomi Elias
The Nigerian Drug Law Enforcement Agency NDLEA has appealed to well meaning Nigerians and Government to invest their resources in building rehabilitation centers across the country towards addressing the menace of drug abuse.
Newsconnect reports that ACN Adewole Timothy, the Area Commander Ikeja NDLEA made this passionate appeal at the maiden edition of Security & Safety summit organized by the Torchlight, an online News platform focused basically on security and safety affairs.
Adewole in an interview with journalists after his presentation among other things said the reason and the cause of drug usage among youths and prevention mechanism were among the message he shared with participants. He also talked about the negligence of parents and teachers in the school, the communities and leaders and how to prevent drug usage using earlier intervention.
“When you know somebody is on drugs, you don’t cover him or her. Expose him or her. How do you expose him, take him for rehabilitation.
“We know that he or she will get out of the problem. If you keep the problem with him or her, it will escalate to a very big problem.
“This is why we are here today. We have been going to schools, we have been advising and talking to our children, from primary school, to secondary school even to tertiary institution.
“We carryout over two hundred sensitisation program every month. Over two hundred programs on how to talk to people.
“We talk to people in the society, workplaces, because when the therapeutic message sinks, they won’t go into it. They know who are into drugs. When they are coming close to them, They would know who to run away from.
“We would not want them to experience the experimental stage. That can lead them to problem. We wouldn’t want them to start it.
“How many private rehabilitation centers do we have, how many government rehabilitation do we have ? How many counselors in that area do we have ? How many trained officers in that area do we have ?
“That is where the problem lies. If individual who are able to build and supply refuse to do, it will still continue to affect but if they can do it, build the rehabilitation centers, employ qualified counselors, provide games that they can engage in, from there, wwe will spot a lot of talents, which we will focus on to distract them from the bad activity they have been engaging in.
“By the time we the parents let them know that ‘gateway drugs’ like cigarettes and alcohol are not good at an early age, they won’t want to experiment and they will be able to spot who to run from that are already in the act”. He said
The convener who is the qPublisher of Torchlight Africa and Vice Chairperson of Nigeria Union Of Journalism Correspondence Chapel Fanayajo Ranti Juliet shared with journalists what inspired the event.
“This is the maiden edition of Torchlight some months ago I thought about safety cultures. I came across people who don’t care about their marriage, their lives, their community, education, etc.
“Most of us are not conscious when it comes to safety, this culminated to why I involved the stakeholders that are presently here to dissect the issue”. She said.