The Ogun State Government has assured the Nigeria Drug Law Enforcement Agency of its support to curb drug abuse through the effective engagement of Community Development Associations.
The Commissioner for Community Development and Cooperatives, Balogun Ademola, gave the assurance on Tuesday while playing host to NDLEA officials, Ogun State Command, led by the Commander of Nacotics, CN Ibiba Odili, in his office at Oke-Mosan, Abeokuta, the state capital.
Ademola said that cooperatives, traders and artisans’ associations would also be involved.
He stated that intensive sensitisation would be needed across the nooks and crannies of the state, assuring that the ministry would deploy all within its reach to rid the state of drug abuse.
Ademola said, ‘’I am declaring the readiness of this ministry to partner with NDLEA by taking the campaign against abuse across the state through the involvement of the Community Development Association, Cooperative Association, and Trade and Artisan Association’’.
Speaking, the Permanent Secretary of the ministry, Fatai Ogunlana, commended the NDLEA for choosing to partner with the ministry in the campaign against drug abuse, saying that the agency deals with many associations, which would go a long way towards achieving the target results.
Ogunlana, who was represented by the Director of Administration and Supplies, Mr. Omoniyi Oyebanji, assured that the commander and her team would be carried along in all the ministry’s activities, to enlighten the populace.
Earlier, Odili said the visit aimed to collaborate with the ministry by taking the campaign against drug abuse among other drug-related issues to the doorsteps of people living in the rural areas across the state.
Odili noted that drug abuse was a global issue, but it had taken another dimension with recent findings that over 72 per cent of women were now using hard drugs among other substances for unknown reasons.
She pointed out that over 400 people had been apprehended and prosecuted in 2023, saying over 41 tonnes of cannabis were also seized within the year in the fight to eradicate drug abuse in the country.
The highlight of the visit was the decoration of the Commissioner as Campaign Ambassador for Stop Drug Abuse in the state by the NDLEA commander.