NDLEA seizes 29.75kg of hard drugs, arrest 38 suspects

-Bayelsa state command of the NDLEA arrest 26 male suspects and 12 female suspects for drug abuse in September 2017.

-The command states expressed concerns about the increase in the consumption of tramadol in the state.

Officers of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), Bayelsa Command, on Wednesday, revealed 38 drug suspects were arrested and 29.751 kilogrammes of illicit drugs were seized in the state in September, 2017.

The figure, obtained by Naija News, was released by the command’s Principal Staff Officer and Superintendent of Narcotics, Osakwe Ikenna, in a statement on Wednesday in Yenagoa.

According to Ikenna, of the 38 arrested suspects,26 are males while the other 12 are female offenders.

He said that the illicit drugs seized from the suspects include cannabis sativa, psychotropic substances, heroin and cocaine.

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Ikenna said that statistics of arrest and seizure investigations showed high rate of abuse of psychotropic substances especially tramadol by both old and young people in communities across Bayelsa.

The NDLEA official expressed serious concern over the high rate of abuse of tramadol and other psychotropic substances by residents of the state including women and youths.

He said the command successfully counseled more than 25 substance dependent persons in Bayelsa from July to September 2017 while efforts are on going by the state commander, Abdullahi Abdul to put together more sensitization campaigns.

He also appealed to parents and guardians to keep watch over the activities of their children and wards to ensure that they were not misled or pressured into illegal drug use while he urged the general community to report any identified or suspected case of illegal drug abuse to the command.