December 7, 2017

The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), Gombe State Command, said on Thursday that it arrested 86 suspects with 1,293.424 kilogrammes of hard drugs between January and November.

The NDLEA Commandant in the state, Mr Aliyu Adole, disclosed this in Gombe while briefing newsmen on the activities of the agency.

Adole said that 46 of the arrested suspects had been convicted while the cases of the rest 40 were pending.

He said that the command also arrested 14 clients who were eventually sick, adding, “we have released them to their families after undergoing rehabilitation.”

He said that following the command’s new mode of operation, which took them into farm lands, the agency seized more drugs in 2017 than it did in 2016.

According to him, the agency’s operatives arrested 102 suspects with 444.986kilogrammes last year.

The commandant said: “this year, we have 1,293.424 kg of hard drugs seized from Gombe.

“It is like this because we are able to burst the syndicate of individual farmers who are busy planting Indian hemp in their villages bordering southern part of the state.

“We also intercepted 831.78kg of psychotropic substances. With this quantity, you can see that we are moving forward,” he said.

Adole however blamed engagement of some of the suspects in the business of hard drugs on economic hardship.

“If you ask one or two people they will tell you that they are selling drugs to get money to feed their children,” he said.

He called on the residents to always provide the agency with useful information that could help it fight against drugs in the state in particular and the country at large