Drug business thrives in Nigeria as narcotics seizures spike 274%
By The business of selling illegal substances is thriving in Nigeria as security agencies arrest more drug dealers and confiscate their wares, available data say.
In 2019, there was 274 percent increase in narcotics seizures and arrests, according to data released on Thursday by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).
This means that more Nigerians are using illegal substances as increased arrests indicate a growing market.
Nigeria’s demography constitutes 70-75 percent of youths under 30 years and the data simply indicate a rise in the number of young people abusing dangerous drugs and substances.
Compared to 163,684 kg of narcotics confiscated in 2018, 612,547.89kg were pulled out of the illicit drug market.
However, government agencies saw a 3 per cent drop in the arrest of suspected players, driving the circulation of narcotics from 9,779 nabbed in 2018 to 9,479 in 2019.
Juliana Ugwu, a counsellor with the Drug Demand Reduction Unit, National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), Lagos State Command, attributed the progress to efforts by officers and the unrelenting habit of the general public who abuse substances. She explained that the economic downturn has also been a factor encouraging people to seek illegal eking income, despite the risk.
Following some of the seizures, destruction exercise was carried out in Borno, Plateau, Lagos commands.
“Our target is to channel our energies towards treatment and rehabilitation. We want to focus on demand reduction because we believe that when demand is reduced, supply will seize. When dealers do not get patronage, of course, they will go out of business,” Ugwu told BusinessDay.
In persecution, 9,418 suspects were prosecuted in 2019 as against 9,779 in 2018 while 1,120 were convicted in 2019 as against 1,220 in 2018.
The North-Central geo-political zone led the highest number of drug cases with 517,711.69 cases recorded while South-West and South-South zones followed with 44,744.13 and 28,885.85 cases respectively. The North-East region recorded the least with 4,490.81 drug cases in 2019,” the report states.
A total of 397 counselling cases were reported in 2019 as against 730 in 2018 while 397 counselling were concluded in 2019 as against 440 in 2018.
The renewed focus, Ugwu says, is to intensify counselling, sensitisation, enlightenment campaigns, and offering coping mechanisms to those struggling to get out of addiction.