Crime
Drug abuse, mindset that needs change – Youth Influencers
Drug abuse, mindset that needs change – Youth Influencers
Some influencers have said drug abuse, particularly among youths, is as a result of wrong mindset and attitude in managing their challenges.
They told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in separate interviews in Lagos on Saturday that many people were not proffering the right solutions to their challenges, and instead, resorted to drugs.
Mr Chukwuemeka Onuh, State Coordinator, Collabo Nigeria, said drug abuse was on the high side, and many people were experiencing hardships being compounded by lack of job opportunities.
He urged those experiencing challenges to seek the right type of solutions that would better their future, rather than resort to drugs, which could only cause them more harm.
Onuh, who is also the Chairman, Festac 111, Ward C, Labour Party, said drug abuse was a mindset, because those who engaged in it got neither profit nor gain, but only early deaths and tarnished futures.
He, however said the government had a huge role to play in reducing the rate of drug abuse in the nation by ensuring that there are job opportunities for youths in order to avoid idleness.
“If there are enough jobs, most of the youths will be engaged,” he said.
Onuh also urged parents to be closer to their children, so they could monitor them and check for abnormal behaviours.
Also, Mr George Newton, Convener, Project Light Up, Amuwo Oriade, said drug abuse was an attitude that needed a huge change.
He said most drugs people abused, are for medical purposes, including medicines for treatment of diseases, but were being misused without proper guidance.
“Some companies that produce hair creams use Indian hemp, for example, to stimulate hair growth, but it’s not supposed to be sold on the streets,” he said.
Newton urged the government to carry out a massive reorientation exercise to sensitise people and help change their attitudes regarding the misuse of medications.
He cautioned against the use of drugs to relieve stress, adding that rather than feel better, those who take sedatives without prescription would become addicted.
Mr Anthony Iduh, however, said the major challenge with drug abuse, particularly for youths, was that it is readily available and easy for them to find in their neighbourhoods.
Iduh, who is a Teacher, also said youths had too much idle time available to them.
“The unemployment rate is so high. A lot of them have come out of school and they have no jobs,” he said.
He recommended sports, regular power supply, manufacturing and farming as ways to help reduce idleness among youths.
Iduh urged communities to have facilities, including basketball courts and football fields, where youths can use their energy instead of resorting to drug use.
Drug abuse, mindset that needs change – Youth Influencers
Farmer injured in alleged attack by herders in Bokkos
By Zagazola Makama
A female farmer was injured after she was allegedly attacked by suspected Fulani herders at Josho village in Daffo District of Bokkos Local Government Area of Plateau State.
The incident occurred at about 5:15 p.m. on Sept. 16, 2026, when troops of Sector 5, Operation ENDURING PEACE (OPEP), responded to a report of an attack on the farmer, identified as Mrs Sarah Luka.
According to the report, the attack followed an alleged dispute after Luka resisted cattle grazing on her farmland.
Troops who arrived at the scene found the victim with injuries, while the suspected attackers had fled before their arrival.
Luka was evacuated to a hospital for medical attention.
Security personnel have commenced efforts to track and apprehend the fleeing suspects for further investigation and appropriate legal action.
Farmer injured in alleged attack by herders in Bokkos
South African Woman Bags 40 years for 5.75kg Heroin at Nigerian Airport
By: Michael Mike
A Federal High Court in Abuja on Thursday sentenced a 38-year-old South African woman to 40 years imprisonment for importing 5.75 kilogrammes of heroin into Nigeria using her three-year-old son as cover.
Justice Obiora Egwuatu convicted Ms. Will Jessica Ann on two counts of importation and conspiracy to import heroin in charge No. FHC/ABJ/CR/422/2026, which she pleaded guilty to.
The court sentenced her to 15 years on count one and 25 years on count two. The sentences will run concurrently. She will effectively spend 25 years in jail.
Ann was arrested on July 6, 2026, by operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA, during the inward clearance of passengers on Qatar Airways flight QR 1433 from Doha at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja.
NDLEA said she concealed 14 large blocks of heroin in two checked-in bags and travelled with her toddler to evade security screening.
According to the agency, she initially denied owning any checked luggage. Officers, however, linked two bags containing the drugs to her through baggage tags that tallied with claim tags attached to her passport.
She later admitted ownership, claiming she forgot she checked in the bags. She told investigators she flew in from Cambodia through Doha to Abuja.
Intelligence, NDLEA said, shows she is a member of a transnational drug trafficking organisation operating along the Cambodian-South African axis with her husband and partner, Jan Coenraad De Jager.
De Jager, who is based in Cambodia, was arrested in Johannesburg, South Africa, on July 27, 2026, while attempting to traffic 3.2 kilogrammes of illicit drugs to Hong Kong.
Reacting to the conviction, NDLEA Chairman, Brig. Gen. Buba Marwa (rtd), said the judgment demonstrates the judiciary’s resolve to support the agency’s war against drug trafficking.
Marwa said the conviction reinforces the agency’s position that Nigeria will not be a soft landing for international drug cartels.
He said the arrest of the convict’s partner three weeks after her arrest in Abuja underscores the strength of intelligence-sharing and collaboration between NDLEA and its foreign partners.
He said the agency will continue to strengthen airport interdiction and international collaboration to dismantle trafficking networks using Nigeria as a corridor.
Marwa warned that anyone, regardless of nationality, caught trafficking illicit drugs through Nigeria will face the full weight of the law.
South African Woman Bags 40 years for 5.75kg Heroin at Nigerian Airport
Kidnapped woman escapes abductors in Plateau, receives treatment for minor injuries
By: Zagazola Makama
A woman who was kidnapped by suspected armed robbers along the Kassa–Barkin Ladi highway in Barkin Ladi Local Government Area of Plateau State has reportedly escaped from her abductors and is receiving medical treatment.
The victim was abducted on Tuesday, Sept. 15, 2026, after suspected armed robbers blocked the highway with stones and intercepted vehicles along the route.
Security sources said the woman managed to escape from her abductors in the early hours of Wednesday, Sept. 16, and subsequently made her way to safety.
She is currently receiving treatment at a hospital in Heipang, where she is being attended to for minor injuries reportedly sustained during the incident.
The development followed an earlier response by troops of Sector 4, Operation ENDURING PEACE (OPEP), deployed at the Alpha Guard location, who cleared the highway after discovering an ash-coloured Sharon vehicle without a registration number at the scene.
Sources said a security team has been dispatched to independently verify the circumstances of the woman’s escape and establish the location from which she escaped, as well as gather further evidence.
Security forces are also expected to intensify efforts to identify and apprehend the suspected kidnappers operating along the Kassa–Barkin Ladi axis.
Kidnapped woman escapes abductors in Plateau, receives treatment for minor injuries
OPEP troops foil suspected Fulani bandits reprisal attack on Jwerk Kargung village in Plateau
NIS Enrolls 8,552 Nigerians in Diaspora Passport Intervention
Experts Warn that Climate Crisis is Paramount to Explosion of Insecurity in West Africa
Roger Federer’s Shock as DNA Results Reveal Myla and Charlene Are Not His Biological Children
THE PLIGHT OF FARIDA
FAILED COUP IN BURKINA FASO: HOW TRAORÉ NARROWLY ESCAPED ASSASSINATION PLOT AMID FOREIGN INTERFERENCE CLAIMS
-
News3 years agoRoger Federer’s Shock as DNA Results Reveal Myla and Charlene Are Not His Biological Children
-
Opinions5 years ago
THE PLIGHT OF FARIDA
-
News1 year agoFAILED COUP IN BURKINA FASO: HOW TRAORÉ NARROWLY ESCAPED ASSASSINATION PLOT AMID FOREIGN INTERFERENCE CLAIMS
-
News3 years agoEYN: Rev. Billi, Distortion of History, and The Living Tamarind Tree
-
Opinions5 years agoPOLICE CHARGE ROOMS, A MINTING PRESS
-
ACADEMICS3 years agoA History of Biu” (2015) and The Lingering Bura-Pabir Question (1)
-
Columns3 years agoArmy University Biu: There is certain interest, but certainly not from Borno.
-
Politics1 year ago2027: Why Hon. Midala Balami Must Go, as Youths in Hawul and Asikira/Uba Federal Constituency Reject ₦500,000 as Sallah Gift
