No fewer than 906 suspects of drug related offences were arrested in Kano by the National Drugs Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) in the year 2019, during which 107 were convicted.
The commander of the agency in Kano state, Dr Ibrahim Abdul, said this Tuesday in his office during his end of the year press briefing.
The commander said the state command had also confiscated over eight tons of illicit drugs which include 4.5 tons of Cannabis Sativa, 3 tons of Psychotropic substances, 3.5 kg of Cocaine, 250 kg of Khat and 167 grams of Heroin among others.
“This statistics represented a sharp decline in the number of arrests and seizure, which may not be unconnected with the sustained interdiction operation and demand reduction activities.
“This also put Kano state at number 6 as against the previous ranking where the state was highest in terms of drug abuse and trafficking in the country,” the commander has said.
Abdul added that in its effort to educate the populace on the danger of drug abuse, the command had organized 67 awareness programmes that covered primary to tertiary educational institutions as well as NGO’s and community based organisations.
He said two operations code “Sharan Miyagu” and “Ayi Kallo Lafiya”, targeting political thugs and sanitizing viewing centres of illegal drug activities, were initiated both of which, he said, were yielding positive results.
He highlighted some of the achievements recorded by the command in the year under review, some of which were the arrest of two suspects with 2.927kg of cocaine, destruction of two cannabis plantations and discovery of a clandestine codeine laboratory among others.
Abdul added that two new methods of concealing illicit drugs were uncovered by the command and shared with other law enforcement agencies within and outside the country, one of which was using Kick starter Spare part and the other was using palm oil jerrycans.
He then commended the effort of the state government, traditional institutions, other security agencies and the media for their support in fighting the menace of drug abuse.
