By CHIEDU UCHE OKOYE

Madam Priscilla Ogubike, the head of Drug Demand Reduction Unit, National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), Awka, Anambra State, has lamented that the lives of Nigerian are being destroyed by their use of illicit drugs.

She expressed her worry about the matter when she spoke on drug abuse at the inauguration of the Idemili North Youths’ Campaign Team at Idemili North LGA Headquarters, Ogidi, on July 12, 2025.

Ogubuike, who stated that the abuse of mind-bending drugs by young people is affecting the society negatively, reeled out instances of how people committed homicide and other crimes while under the influence of drugs.

“In January 2025, a man took colos after which he flung his child against a wall.

“A girl was raped after she had taken drugs offered to her by rapists.

“And recently, in the middle-belt area, a young man knifed his mother to death while under the influence of drugs,” Ogubike said.

She admonished drug sellers to put a stop to their evil deed; and drug users to kick their habit as the abuse of drugs by people ruin their lives and blight their futures.

“If your husband sells illicit drugs, don’t keep quiet, tell him to stop.

“And if your wife is doing drug, tell her to stop; otherwise, it will destroy her reproductive organs,” Ogubike said.

In his reaction, the President General of the Obosi Development Union (ODU), Barr. Chimezie Obi, said that the menace of drug abuse in the society is a serious matter that should not be tackled with kid gloves.

He said that a great number of people who committed heinous and grievous crimes in our society did so while under the influence of hard drugs.

Barr. Obi condemned corrupt NDLEA officers who work in cahoots with drug peddlers.

He said that it is those bad eggs in the NDLEA, who do reveal the identities of people who rat on drug dealers.

“Town union leaders are the chief security officers of their towns.

“So I can authoritatively say that ninety percent of crimes committed in our society is attributable to people’s use of hard drugs.

“But it is saddening and demoralizing that some corrupt NDLEA officers divulge the identities of NDLEA informants/informers to drug sellers,” Obi said.

•Okoye is an information officer in the Anambra State Ministry of Information