The Secretary to the Nasarawa State Government, Dr Labaran Magaji, says the fight against drug abuse is critical, noting that drug abuse fuels criminality and other social vices in society.
Magaji stated this on Monday in Lafia when the Nasarawa State Commander of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA, Mr Saidu Daniel, paid him a familiarisation visit.
According to him, drug abuse is becoming worrisome as virtually every family is affected, with consequences ranging from political thuggery to school dropout.
“With respect to your job, the issue of curtailing drug abuse in our society is very worrisome. Virtually in every family, you can hardly find one or two persons who are not engaging in it.
“Political thuggery and school dropout are being fueled by drug intake. All those vices that you can think of, they are all a result of drug abuse,” he said.
According to him, the NDLEA’s job cannot be underestimated and must be brought to the front burner to enable the agency to function effectively.
“Your job cannot be underestimated, and the need for the government to support what you are doing should not be kept in the left hand. It must be brought to the front burner so that you can effectively function,” he said.
Magaji said Nasarawa State has enjoyed relative peace compared to other states in the North-Central, attributing it to Gov.
Abdullahi Sule’s leadership style, anchored on community engagement and support for security agencies.
“Nasarawa State is now one of the places where security agencies do not find it difficult to do their work; you have relative peace compared to what you see in other states within the North Central.
He achieved that with the support of security agencies like yours,” he said.
He, however, noted that while major communal, tribal or banditry rifts are rare in the state, pockets of criminality that date back to history still exist.
The SSG said the state government supports all security agencies with monthly subvention and logistics support despite them being federal agencies and assured the NDLEA of government attention to its logistics challenges.
Earlier, the NDLEA Commander, Nasarawa State Command, Mr Saidu Daniel, said his visit was to sustain the synergy between the agency and the state government and to solicit more support, particularly in the area of logistics.
He described the drug situation in the country as challenging, with new dangerous substances emerging.
“Because the drug problem in Nigeria, particularly, has been so challenging. Some of the drugs nowadays, when you hear them, I didn’t even imagine when I joined the job in 1995,” he said.
“We still have challenges, particularly when it comes to logistics in the state, and anything that the state government can do to aid us to ensure that we accomplish our set objectives, we will be grateful,” he added.
Daniel stressed that the country must confront drug abuse head-on or suffer the consequences, assuring that his team will do everything possible to contribute its quota during their tour of duty in Nasarawa State.
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