The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), Katsina State Command, said its operatives confiscated 563.5kg of illicit drugs and arrested 919 suspects in 2023.
The state commander of the agency, Hassan Sani Abubakar, who disclosed this while briefing newsmen on the achievements of the agency in the year 2023, added that among those arrested were 894 males and 25 females.
The commander who said he was worried about the increasing menace of drug abuse in Katsina State called for all hands to be on deck to tackle the menace.
Abubakar also attributed the increase in the intake of drugs to the various ways in which the drugs are concealed from law enforcement officers through different means, emphasising the need for the public to always provide useful information to the agency to be able to rid the state of the menace.
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He said, “The year 2023 was hectic due to unfortunate events of banditry in our dear state which in many ways interrupted not only our operations but even smooth governance.”
He also said the level of substance abuse and trafficking among the general public has been of serious concern for the agency as Katsina State is placed 2nd after Kaduna in North West in substance abuse.
“In the year under review, our legal department was able to file 98 cases before the Federal High Court sitting in Katsina and we successfully secured 76 convictions including 74 males and 2 females. The command also has 161 pending court cases in various stages of prosecution,” he said.
He added that the command had also secured the interim forfeiture of one Sienna vehicle and final forfeiture of 33 abandoned motorcycles and one Prime Nissan vehicle.
He said the war against drugs abuse unit of the command had counselled 842 suspects comprising 805 males and 37 females and admitted 82 clients into its skills acquisition centre in which 25 of them were government-sponsored while 57 are self-sponsored.
