August 12, (THEWILL) — The Commander for National Drugs Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) in Ogun State, Tijjani Rabe, has advocated for the establishment of rehabilitation centre for drugs addicts, particularly youths in the state, to overcome addiction and achieve their dreams.
Rabe, who disclosed on Monday at an event organised by The Consolidated Chapel, Ogun State Chapter, to mark the 2025 World International Youth Day with theme “Youth Empowerment For Sustainable Future”, held at the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) Secretariat, Abeokuta, the state capital, said that only Ogun, out of all 36 states was yet to have a rehabilitation centre.
He lamented that with the high number abuse of drugs, including Cannabis Sativa, Colorado, Tramadol, Codeine and various quantities of psychotropic drugs among youth of the 21st century, it was high time the state had rehabilitation centre to detoxify and help them recover their sanities.
The Commander divulged that the Command had secured a land donated by Onimeko of Imeko to build a rehabilitation centre in the state while calling on politicians and well-meaning individuals to assist in the construction of project to save the youth from the menace and destroying their lives.
He urged parents and guardians to monitor and educate their children against the abuse of drugs, saying that prevention is better than cure of spending over N1.5 million to admit a child in private rehabilitation centres and a sum of N400,000 to deposit the child for treatment at Neuropsychiatric Hospital, Aro, Abeokuta.
He mentioned peer groups, academic and career pressure, digital exposure and mental health disorder, to be the reason people indulge in drug abuse while identifying education and awareness in school and community, as well as promoting drugs-free lifestyle and providing counselling and treatments as the only solution to addiction among youth.
The Commander said that from January to June this year, the Command arrested 395 suspects, comprising of 331 male suspects and 64 female suspects, calling on the members of the public to rise against drug abuse and trafficking in the state and the country at large.
He said, “We have talked about rehabilitation, NDLEA have rehabilitation centre nationwide, unfortunately it is only in Ogun State that NDLEA does not have rehabilitation centre. And let me tell you why most of the states, some of the states, the rehabilitation were built by NDLEA, but in majority of the states the rehabilitation centre were built by the state for NDLEA to manage.
“The Chairman and the Chief Executive Officer of National Drugs and Law enforcement agency, Brig. Gen. Buba Marwa (Retd), attended a sanitisation in Ijebu-Ode last Saturday, I was there when he mentioned in the gathering that Ogun State does not have a rehabilitation centre, however, we are going to build a rehabilitation centre in Ogun State in this year’s budget we have secured a land generously donated by Onimeko of Imeko in Imeko and that is where we are going to build our rehabilitation centre God willing.
“We have what we use in the meantime in the New psychiatric hospital, where we access individuals with drugs problems and find out that they need to be treated because their situation has been becoming a metal health challenge so we referred them to the New psychiatric hospital, the unfortunately things that it is expensive because we have to deposit like 400,000 before a child can be admitted. Some family we could afford that don’t want to take their wards to new psycharic hospital because of stigma. The community don’t want to know once you have been taking to Aro for years and you come back and get slightly angry they say that thing has come back.
“We have private rehabilitation centre here in Ogun State but such rehabilitation is very expensive that is why we always emphasise on prevention, they charge nothing less than 1.5m for a child to be admitted in the private rehabilitation centre, so who can afford that? Of course if we have rehabilitation centre, we could do more and sincerely speaking we need that, we are trying to get senators to see if they can do something for humanity in their own constituencies we have expertise to manage such centre”, he noted.
Earlier, the Acting Chairperson of the Chapel, Bose Akintunde, called on the government to create more awareness on the danger of drugs, while admonishing parents and guardians to educate and invest in their children to build better future for them.
Seun Shotunde, THEWILL
