Kogi State commissioner for Education, Hon. Wemi Jones, has promised the ministry’s collaboration with the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) to reduce the menace of drug abuse in schools across the state.
Jones gave the assurance when the Kogi State Commander of NDLEA, Mr. Umar Mustapha Yahuza, led his management team on an advocacy visit to the commissioner’s office in Lokoja.
The commissioner decried the alarming rate of drugs abuse among teenagers, and stressed the need to do whatever it takes to reduce the menace in schools at all levels in the state.
The commissioner expressed the readiness of the ministry to effectively partner and collaborate with the NDLEA to sanitise the school system.
According to him, the state has invested so much in education and the ministry will not allow such investment to be wasted by refusing to address the problems of drug abuse in schools.
He expressed his worries over the prevalence of drug abuse, especially among female folks, saying the country is sitting on a time bomb that requires all hands to be on deck to tackle the menace.
“The Kogi State Government do not pay lip service to education and would do everything possible to deal with whatever that will hamper the growth of education in the state,” Jones said.
Earlier, the NDLEA State Commander, Mr. Umar Mustapha Yahuza, thanked the state governor, Alh. Ahmed Ododo, for prioritising the needs of his people,
He commended the governor for his promise to establish a Multi-Dimensional Drugs Rehabilitation and Skills Acquisition Center in the state, saying it would serve as the rehabilitation and reintegration of drugs abuse patients into the society.
Yahuza noted that the Agency is synergising with both public and private schools, churches, mosques, traditional and religious leaders to sensitise and enlighten people within the catchment ages on the danger of drug abuse.
He emphasised that one of the potent ways to fight crime is by enlightening the people about the danger in committing the crime.
He, therefore, called on the ministry to partner with the agency to come up with a robust programme of action to sensitise schools and enlighten the people on the dangers of drug abuse.
Yahuza added that the agency would also educate, rehabilitate and reintegrate those already affected to the society.
He promised that the agency would introduce Drugs Integrity Test to families and institutions to help in curbing the menace of drug abuse in the society.
The highlight of the visit was the decoration of the Commissioner as War Against Drug Abuse Ambassador.
