By Ikeugonna Eleke
The cost of the deadly narcotic drug known as Methamphetamine, a.k.a. Mkpuru Miriri, which used to be N3, 500 per gram, has skyrocketed to N16, 500, a development that accounts for the enforcement by the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA, against its consumption and peddling.
This is coming as the Agency has concluded arrangements to partner with the 8,000 members of the Ultimate Business Women and Farmers Association of Nigeria, UBWFAN, on the fight against drug abuse at the grassroots level.
Disclosing this during a presentation of an Award of Excellence by the Ultimate Business Women and Farmers Association of Nigeria to the Commander of the Agency in Anambra, Commander Onyishi Daniel Ogbonna, he stated that due to the handling of the enforcement, consumers and addicts did not have easy access to the drug.
‘We are going hard on them and that is why the cost of the methamphetamine has risen to N16, 500 as against the cost of N3, 500 before the enforcement.
‘The Command is impressed with this initiative of holding a convention by the women’s group with a theme, “Role of Mothers in Nation’s Security”, because the pressure is on the mothers, the men are not always there.
‘The women take care of the children and if everything goes wrong the women would take the blame for whatever the children do and I urge you all to continue in that stead.
‘For our own part the Command would be partnering with you women and especially the Ultimate Business Women And Farmers Association of Nigeria to fight against the issue of drug abuse and peddling because what we teach the women goes down to the children for the counseling of our children.
‘With this organization working with us, it would surely have great multiplier effects on the training of our children for the good of society,’ he said.
Speaking earlier, the President of the Ultimate Business Women and Farmers Association of Nigeria, Hon Nkiru Nwagbo, noted that the award was in appreciation of the Command’s doggedness towards the fight against drug abuse and peddling, which, according to her, nearly consumed the state.
Hon. Nwagbo, who observed that drug was the major thing that triggered crime and all other social vices, insisted that drug abuse had reduced to the minimal level that brought about the low level of insecurity in the state.
She said that the third National Convention of the body was held recently in Awka where the service commanders in Anambra had an interface with the women from the 21 local government areas of Anambra state.
Nwagbo said that the convention was an annual ritual of the organization where all the executive members of the 21 local government areas of the organization, numbering 500 women, would come together to deliberate on the state of the Nation as it affected the mothers and fostered solution to better society.
She further congratulated the Commander on the fight against drug peddling and illicit consumption, adding that all the Service Commanders were working in tandem with the state government towards the fight against insecurity in the state.
