RAYMOND OZOJI reports
"Ngbeno-Nkiti" is one of the most dangerous bunks in Nteje community of Oyi Local Government Area of Anambra State where youths within their productive ages languished in the consumption of hard drugs and subsequently constituted security threats to public peace.
Youths who would have either been enrolled in schools or engaged in apprenticeship trainings to acquire skills for legitimate means of livelihoods, resorted to illegal sale of lands to multiple buyers and deployed the proceeds to substance abuse and illicit drug intakes resulting in the multiplicity of bunks and hideouts where these crimes were committed in Nteje community.
President-General of Nteje Development Union (NDU) and Chief Security Officer of the Agunechemba Squad, Chief Hon. Nweke Dennis Osoluchukwu (Ezenwa Chinyelugo 1 Na Nteje ) who spoke to this journalist exclusively about his onslaught on hard drugs and substance abuse in the area, said the war against drug dealers and drug takers have begun and they are winning the war because they have raided all the bunks and hideouts where criminal elements lurked to disrupt public peace especially Ngbeno-Nkiti bunk at Umuanuwa Ezi-Nteje village.
Nweke maintained that the war against drug abuse in Nteje community has yielded positive results as they have made so many arrests and recovered so many illicit drugs which were handed over to the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA).
He said he has observed since assumption of office in January this year that drug abuse is like a cancer spreading with uncontrollable velocity in Nteje community. That youths no longer go to school but neck deep in the sale of lands they do not own and use the money realized from illegal land transactions to consume illicit drugs.
He said his administration has taken the war against substance abuse to the next level. That they have raided and destroyed all the bunks and hideouts where male and female young persons spent days consuming all manner of dangerous drugs without recourse to the impacts on their health conditions and the society at large.
The PG disclosed that when their expeditions took them to Ngbeno-Nkiti hideout at Umuanuwa village Ezi-Nteje, they discovered that the youths had pots, plates, spoons and other household utensils in the bunk. That they lived in the bunk as if it was their home. He said they raided the bunk and stationed a security patrol team therein to prevent them from regrouping again.
According to him, NDU executives and stakeholders have banned consumption of illegal substances in Nteje Abogu community and that henceforth they have equally resolved to take illicit drug users off the streets. He said before he came on board as the President-General of Nteje community, some defiant youths used to smoke weeds along the streets. But his administration now arrest youths found smoking hard substances along the roads and constituting public nuisance.
Nweke told this journalist th conduct random stop and search and any youth found with illicit substances during such occasions was handed over to the appropriate authority, adding that the war against hard drugs and substance abuse has been taken to a different level.
He therefore admonished youths involved in substance abuse to quit while they can because the law will take its full cause if they are caught in the act and no one will listen to the cries of their parents and relatives.
He also stressed that Nteje youths must be productive and useful. That they must go to school or acquire practical economic skills for self-empowerment and self-care. The PG pointed out that they don't want any youth to end up in the streets because if they do, they either become armed-robbers, prostitutes and what have you; dealing on illegal drugs and other atrocities.
According to him, when young persons acquire formal education or learn a skill, they have multiple choices and opportunities to become productive and relevant to themselves and to the society, emphasizing that his administration is eliminating idle minds as he believes that an idle mind is the Devil's workshop..
Nweke told this journalist that over 70% of cases at Federal High Court Otuocha and over 60% of cases at Zone 13 Police Headquarters Ukpo are land cases from Nteje community resulting from land racketeering activities. He therefore added that he has the capacity to stop the menace in his community which he said is his primary responsibility as the PG and Chief Security Officer (CSO).
He made it sufficiently clear that Governor Charles Chukwuma Soludo initiated One Youth Two Skills empowerment programme for young people which he said he is a beneficiary and that the programme has taken many a youth off the streets.
Nteje PG who emphasized that there is no shortcut to wealth creation, maintained that his interview with this journalist is a final cum stern warning to youths in Nteje community that there is no room for drug abuse, land speculations and racketeering and other illegal activities, adding that everybody must be useful in the community.
Emmanuella Chike and Chinaza Igboneme who were some of the villagers that narrated their ordeals in the hands of the criminal elements who congregated at Ngbeno-Nkiti hideout Umuanuwa Ezi-Nteje for their illicit drug activities, told this journalist that the criminal elements who congregated at Ngbeno-Nkiti bunk to take their illicit substances steal their mobile phones and other belongings of theirs but they have heaved a sigh of relief since the President-General launched the war against sale and consumption of illicit substances as they now sleep with their two eyes closed.
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