With the theme, ‘People First: Stop Stigma and Discrimination, Strengthen Prevention,’ the worldwide campaign focused on efforts to rehabilitate and counsel drug users. In Nigeria, trafficking within and across the country’s borders is increasing, and abuse is rising even faster.
Interdiction efforts have recently resulted in the arrest of 35 drug barons, while 5,147 offenders have been prosecuted and sentenced to various jail terms. Some of the criminals also forfeited their ill-gotten wealth to the government. Both the Nigerian government and the people should fret. Rising drug abuse and trafficking are fuelling crime, terrorism, and ill health, while law enforcement is overstretched.
President Bola Tinubu should therefore treat this challenge as another national emergency and tackle it head-on. Drug trafficking, says the United Kingdom’s National Crime Agency, is powered by organised crime gangs that also engage in other serious crimes such as arms trafficking, modern slavery, financing terrorism, and money-laundering.
Despite regular interceptions, seizures of drugs and prosecution of couriers, some desperate Nigerians continue to venture into the illicit drug complex. The NDLEA in 2022 recorded N619.12 million as final illegal drug funds forfeiture, and another N252.41 million in interim forfeitures, while 18,940 suspects were arrested.Drug use prevalence in Nigeria, said the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, was nearly 15 per cent, almost three times higher than the global average.
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