The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency has vowed to locate and dismantle the cartels sponsoring the production and sale of methamphetamine in the country.
Methamphetamine, popularly known as Mkpuru Mmiri, literarily meaning pellet of water, in the Igbo language, is one of the latest additions to the list of hard drugs wreaking havoc on the lives of young people in Nigeria.
To achieve this, the agency has set up a special task force operating across the country to arrest the culprits, it said on Monday.
This was disclosed by the Chairman/Chief Executive of the agency, Brig. Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa (Retd), in an address to journalists at a press conference in Abuja to mark his one year in office.
Femi Babafemi, the agency’s spokesman announced this in a statement, in which he quoted Marwa as communities in the country to take over the fight against drug abuse in the way the southeast region has done against Mkpuri Mmiri.
“If you look at the preponderance of the dealers in drugs, I’m not saying anything new but the South-East has the predominance and that’s a fact. Who are the Boko Haram people? I know they are not Yoruba and I know they are not people from Edo, but if you go to the North-West and ask who are the bandits, I know they are not from Cross River or from Lagos. If you ask the people doing the human trafficking, the women, you know from where.
“So definitely, we have the preponderance of the drug dealers from the South-East, but what more do you have; the greatest efforts by communities to rid the country and their communities of drug use are from the South-East. Clearly, in the same South-East, they are doing two things; first, they are telling their fellow travellers who are not decent that look you are the very few who are spoiling our names here. Stop it!
“And more importantly, they are ridding their communities of drug abuse, they have taken the ownership of the war themselves against drug abuse especially the Mkpuru Mmiri. By the way, we have set up a special task force to face that challenge and very soon you would hear and see the results of our efforts.
“In essence, what I am saying is that I am now taking the South-East as an example for all the other communities in Nigeria. This war has to start from the bottom, from the communities; set up your War Against Drug Abuse, WADA, Committees. In every community, you are the ones who know those patent medicine stores that sell drugs, the mai shayi, those at the corner ends of the streets who sell and hawk drugs, you know the traffickers and you know those who use them. Take this war to your communities because you know these people, cleanse your communities, and take ownership of this war and the NDLEA will always be there to back you up.
“However, the NDLEA does not and will not support the flogging of the culprits and some of the other human rights abuses. We will be there to support you with counselling and treatments. And I urge the entire country to take an example of the ownership of the war against drug abuse from the South East.”
This was in reference to the harsh treatment being given to addicts involved in the consumption of the drug in the southeast region. They are often tied to trees or poles and given several strokes of the cane on their bare bodies.
