The Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Command of the National Drug Law
Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) may need to intensify its effort at ridding
Abuja of hard drugs that is now being sold in every nook and cranny of
the city.
There has been an increase in drugs and substance abuse nationwide
especially amongst teenagers and young adults aged with no exception.
World Health Organization (WHO) describes drugs and substance abuse
as “the harmful or hazardous use of psychoactive substances, including
alcohol and illicit drugs”.
It also refers to a condition in which a person consumes the
substance in quantities or with procedures which are not approved or
monitored medically.
Substance and drugs abuse encompasses the use of “mood-altering or
psycho-active drugs; illicit drugs – narcotics; stimulants; depressants
(sedatives); hallucinogens; cannabis; glues and paints, substance abuse
often includes problems with impulse control and impulsive behaviour”.
They
either stimulate or depress the central nervous system and produce
sedative, stimulants, hallucinogenic, exhilarative, brain dysfunctional
physical and psychological disorders on an individual The twist to the
sale of hard drugs in Abuja is that it has gone beyond the era when
peddlers carried out their trade with fear.
Small shop owners have been introduced into the business. Customers
openly visit the shops, Sunday Vanguard investigation revealed One wrap
of marijuana, it was found, is sold between N20 and N50, depending on
the area of the nation’s capital city.
Codeine syrup, which ordinarily should be sold to patients based on
doctors’ prescription is now sold by owners of small shops, popularly
referred to as kiosks. It was unclear how the shop owners get their
supply, but they readily have the products available for any customer
who discreetly walks into their shops to buy. Just recently, a
34-year-old man was arrested by the police in Kubwa for allegedly
selling Codeine and other hard drugs to residents of the satellite town.
The suspect, identified as Kelechi, posed as a patent medicine
dealer. He was apprehended with two of his customers while dispensing
the drugs to the customers, mostly teenagers, in his shop located at
Kukwaba area.
Sunday Vanguard learnt that nemesis caught up with him when one of
his customers, a teenager who succumbed to pressure from his father,
revealed the identity of the (suspected) drug dealer.
The source added that after showing the father the shop, the father
alerted the police who immediately visited the shop and arrested the
suspect.
“Two of the police officers in mufti entered the shop, pretending
they were there to buy drugs and, as soon as he brought out the drugs,
they got him arrested together with two of his customers.”
A carved out red light zone in the heart of Kubwa district, popularly
referred to as Woman Boku, could compete with the Soho London red
light district, an area inhabited by commercial sex workers, pimps, drug
dealers, bars, and distinct night crawlers, in the drug game.
Woman Boku won its popularity owing to the criminal activities carried out there.
A report by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on drug
activities in the FCT over a five-year period, 2010. – 2014, revealed
seized 31,614.58kg of narcotic drugs and 475 suspects prosecuted.
The NBS report indicated that 2013 recorded the highest number of drugs seized.
In that year, NDLEA confiscated 13,622kg of narcotic drugs, which was higher than 3,807.71kg seized in 2011. The report further showed that in 2012 and 2014, 5,094.30kg and 6,440.20kg of illegal drugs were seized, respectively.
There is cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine, Indian hemp and a few
others which bear criminal tags and as such banned from open sale and
consumption. But no one will ever consider an ordinary cough syrup like
Benylin or lizard faeces, inhaling the sting from sock away as among
substances categorized as ‘hard drug’.
Those lizards, captured alive, are kept in cages, just like poultry
farms and cattle ranches. They’re fed daily and their dung collected,
dried and kept. The users then blend the dung and rap it in small papers
for use. While some users inhale the blended dung, others smoke it like
marijuana. The intoxicating effect of the dung is believed to be 50
percent higher than marijuana and cocaine.
Although, lizard dung has not officially been banned by relevant
agencies of government, there are strong indications that it could turn
into a multi-million Naira industry with the potential of selling the
‘finished products’ at robust prices. The demand for tit on the streets
of Nigeria’s major cities, particularly Abuja, has beaten the standard
set by cocaine addicts. The abuse of the substances got so alarming that
the Federal Government banned the sale of Benylin with Codeine off the
counter except with a medical doctor’s prescription.
Codeine is primarily used to treat mild to moderate pain and to
relieve cough. It is also used to treat diarrhoea and diarrhoea
predominant irritable bowel syndrome. The reality however is that the
criminalization and high cost of the usual hard drugs listed above have
in combination with other factors led to the discovery of other potent
substances with similar stimulant and/or suppressant effects on the
central nervous system by consumers of hard drugs especially teenagers.
Effort have been made through the Nigerian Customs Services,
Immigration and the police to checkmate the activities of
drug-pushers/users. This onerous task, however, proved a Herculean task.
The Commander of the FCT Command of NDLEA, Chinyere Obijuru has, in
the meantime, called on Abuja residents to be alert to any possible
existence of methamphetamine laboratories which, she disclosed, does not
only pose risks to users but also to residents.
Obijuru stated that the command plans to build a rehabilitation
centre for drug addicts while soliciting the support for a land from
Abuja Geographic Information Systems (AGIS) to actualise its plan.
The FCT Permanent Secretary, Engr. John Obinna Chukwu, confirmed the seizure.
The Permanent Secretary revealed that the Task Team discovered the
hard drugs in a depot during its covert operation at Tura-Bura, behind
Apo Roundabout.
