Takers and sellers of illicit drugs in Imo State are in for rough times as the State Governor, Rochas Okorocha has said any building where any of such drugs is sold will be demolished by the government and the owner be made to face the wrath of the law.
A Taskforce has been constituted to carry out the task. It is headed by Barr (Mrs) Ijeoma Igboanusi. The committee has been charged to work in collaboration with the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) in the state to fish out the takers and sellers of illicit drugs for necessary action.
According to a statement by the Governor’s Chief Press Secretary, Okorocha spoke at the Government House on Sunday while receiving Chairman and members of the Taskforce.
His words “Let me congratulate the Taskforce on illicit drugs and to encourage them on the risk ahead. We will fund this taskforce very well to be sure they lack nothing in the course of executing their job. We shall convert the Cultural Centre in Orlu as a rehabilitation Centre and the one in Okigwe shall be called the Drug Rehabilitation Centre”.
The governor added “The society is finished. The young men are gone and what that means is that all issues we are struggling for, when we are no more in this world, we have nobody to handover to. It is very very worrisome and I weep about it because I now realize how empty it is with our children. You are speaking and they are looking at you but not with you”.
He continued “We have problem in this land. Please the Church should pray. And I don’t know what the Bishops and Reverends and Pastors are doing in this nation. We have gotten to a situation where you see a Child rise up in the morning and slaps the mother before going out. I’m passing a law now that after 20years no child is to stay with the mother anymore, they should leave the house. So that they can learn to stand alone”.
He further stated “One of the decisions we have taken is that once we discover a place they are selling the drug, we must bring down the house, no matter who owns the house. Once the landlord cannot control what people do in his house, that place must come down. If marijuana stops, kidnapping, armed robbery will stop. Our traditional rulers know them and they are afraid of them in the villages. So they have become too powerful. And we must as a matter of urgency, address this issue of illicit drugs”.