Jigawa Committee on Drug Abuse among Youth has established Rehabilitation Centre in Dutse to take care of youths who find themselves hooked to drugs.
Josephine Ruth, the Commandant of National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA, in the state made this known at a news conference in Dutse on Tuesday.
Recall that Jigawa Government had in 2015 inaugurated a 20-member committee to check the menace of drug abuse among youths in the state.
While inaugurating the committee, the then Secretary to the State Government, SSG, Adamu Abdulkadir, said the state government was concerned about misbehaviour of some youths due to misuse of drugs.
The committee was to identify the causes of drug abuse, the level of usage and track the sources of the drugs.
The committee was also to sensitise the public, particularly youths, on the dangers of drug abuse.
It was shouldered with the responsibility of rehabilitating drug addicts and advising the government on the way forward.
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The committee has Khadi Bashir as Chairman and Malam Haruna Ibrahim from the Special Services Directorate of the SSG’s office, as Secretary.
Other members of the committee are drawn from the State House of Assembly, Ministries of Health, Justice, Women Affairs and that of Information.
Others include the NDLEA, Police, DSS, NSCDC, NAPMED and the State Hisba Board.
Recall that the NDLEA commandant in 2017 identified the lack of rehabilitation centre as major constraint against the operations of the command in the state.
She consequently said “our command now has a Rehabilitation Centre established by Jigawa Drug Control Committee.
“The centre will enable us to carry out home-based counselling. Even though not perfect, the centre is ready to take clients.”
She advised families with children in need of rehabilitation to avail themselves the opportunity and bring them to the centre for proper rehabilitation and counselling.
She added that “before now, families with children in need of rehabilitation had to go to other states for this service, and others who could not afford to bear the consequences.
“We hope such families would be bold enough to bring their children to the centre for proper counselling because some people were afraid of stigmatisation.”
NAN
