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By Sunday Ani
Executive Director, Centre for Corrections and Human Development (CCHD), Obioma Evelyn Agoziem, has said the fight against drug abuse and illicit trafficking in Nigeria has not been given the needed attention, particularly by government.
She made the statement at an event put together by the centre in collaboration with Child Protection Network, Lagos, to mark the international day against drug abuse and illicit trafficking.
Addressing students drawn from eight secondary schools across Lagos State, Agoziem said all hands must be on deck in the fight against the scourge, even as she charged government, corporate institutions and other stakeholders to rise up to their responsibilities.
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Coordinator, Child Protection Network, Ronke Oyelakin, advised students to do everything within their powers to avoid anything that has to do with drug if they want to be useful in life. She charged them on the need to stand for what is right at all times, even as she warned them not to allow people destroy their destiny.
Speaking on the topic “Combating threats posed by drug abuse and illicit trafficking: The role of stakeholders,” guest speaker and Assistant Commander of Narcotics, National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), Lagos Command, Titilope Ogunluyi, identified ignorance, peer pressure and involvement in cultism, among others, as some of the causes of drug abuse.
She blamed politicians for being part of the problem, saying, “politicians mobilise the youths, and encourage them to take drugs so that they could use them to cause violence and electoral malpractices during elections, instead of mobilising them for good reasons.”
Dr Ayo Ajayi, who represented Dr. Omotayo Akjirotutu of the Federal Neuro-Psychiatric Hospital, Yaba, Lagos, told the youths that his experiences with several patients and warned that taking drugs and being addicted was easy but the greater danger and difficulty was in withdrawing from the habit.
