The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has announced the arrest of 50 street beggars, otherwise called almajiris for drug pushing in Kano.NDLEA’s Commander, Hamza Umar, said this at the weekend at a policy dialogue forum on drug abuse among youths.
NDLEA
The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has announced the arrest of 50 street beggars, otherwise called almajiris for drug pushing in Kano.NDLEA’s Commander, Hamza Umar, said this at the weekend at a policy dialogue forum on drug abuse among youths.
The forum, which was organised by the Aminu Kano Centre For Democratic Research and Training, stressed that the involvement of almajiri’s in drug trafficking was strange.He however added that investigations have shown that more idle children are being recruited on daily basis to sell drugs in the city.
Majority of the arrested beggars, who are within the age bracket of between 9 and 12 years, confessed to the crime, claiming they are paid N300 daily by the dealers to run the business.
Besides, the agency warned the public to be weary of a locally concocted psychotropic drug commonly found among youths in the state, called gygabyte.The NDLEA boss lamented the increasing rate of youths and married women’s involvement in addiction drugs, warning parents and guardians to be conscious of their children’s upbringing.
He explained that the new drug, which comes in various capacities, has the tendencies of actively inducing consumers for two days and beyond.According to Hamza, “It comes in one to three capacities. One gigabyte can ensure the taker remains awake and strongly active for 12 hours, just as two gigs would make them active for 24 hours.
“I will not explain how it is prepare in order not to teach innocent people. But, I can assure you that NDLEA is moving all out to arrest those taking it. We know the symptoms. Already we have arrested many of them,” he said.
Hamza blamed poverty and the carefree attitude of some parents, who abdicate their primary responsibilities to their children.He explained that due to poverty, “some parents push their children out to eke out a living by hawking, which eventually lands them in the hands of trafficking and child labour cartels.
”Parents no longer care about morality. They don’t care about what their children do and the friends they keep,’ adding ‘that orientation that is supposed to start from the home is lost,” he said.
The director of the centre, Prof. Haruna Wakili, said they are worried about the increasing volumes of drug-related complaints.He said, “Any violence you can think about in Kano, be it threat to peace, rape, child abuse, is all committed under the influence of drugs,” hence the need enlightenment.
