By BONIFACE OKORO, Umuahia

Abia State government has promised to create job opportunities for her teeming youths, as part of the measures to fight drug abuse in the state.

Abia State Deputy Governor, Engineer Ikechukwu Emetu, made the promise during a crucial meet he held with stakeholders in the drug business on Friday, June 9, 2023. He also advocated intensification of collective efforts in the fight against drug abuse in order to have a crime-free society.

Stakeholders who were part of the meeting included principal officers of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), and Ministry of Health, among others, who suggested a 24-hour drug surveillance taskforce to check inflow of drugs into the state.

During the meeting held at Government House, Umuahia, the Deputy Governor promised that government would provide adequate logistics to assist relevant stakeholders involved in regulating drugs in the state to discharge their responsibilities effectively.

According to Emetu, government would provide job opportunities for the youths who are the biggest casualties of drug abuse as a way of fighting the menace.

He lamented that people, especially the youths, resort to hard drugs consumption as relief for pain and unpleasant emotional trauma without considering harmful effects of the drugs on their health and society.

The Deputy Governor harped on the need to control the inflow of illicit drugs into the state and proper classification of drugs and appealed for collaboration of officials of NDLEA, the Ministry of Health and pharmaceutical outlets to ensure that the war against drug abuse was won.

He mandated the State Commander of NDLEA, Mr Yusuf Aboki-Dogo, and a former Senior Special Assistant on Drugs and Narcotics, Mr David Anyanwu, to come up with a comprehensive brief and challenges facing them in the fight against drug abuse.

In their separate remarks, the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Health, Lady Franca Ekwueme, Aboki-Dogo, and Anyanwu, called for close collaboration between relevant stakeholders in the control of drugs, adding the war on drugs was a collective responsibility. They also called for a 24-hour Drug Task Force to help tackle the menace in the state.