National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has drawn attention to the alarming rate of the consumption of illicit substances and hard drugs in Akwa Ibom State.
The state commander of the agency, Obot Bassey, made this public at the 2025 Feast of Barracuda meeting by the National Association of Seadogs (NAS) – Pyrates Confraternity, Atlantic Shores Deck, in Eket on Monday.
The theme of the event was “High Cost of Getting High: Unmasking the Real Price of Drug Abuse.”
Bassey, who was represented by the Commander of the Eket Area Command, Mr Ojukwu Obidi, said, “In Akwa Ibom alone, the rate of drug abuse is very high,” adding that “nowhere I have been to, that I see the number of mentally-challenged people that I can compare to what I have seen in Akwa Ibom.”
According to her, “drug abuse is alarming in Akwa Ibom because Akwa Ibomites have normalised drug abuse; they see it as nothing, they see it as a way of promoting the economy and sustaining themselves.”
Bassey lamented that young adults take cocktail of Indian hemp, stressing the marijuana and alcohol mixture contributed largely to cases of people with mental health challenges.
“If you go to social gatherings in Akwa Ibom, hardly will you not see young adults taking combine and you know that their genetical make-up is different, which lead many of them to mentally health challenges,” she said.
The state commander disclosed that under her watch, the NDLEA has seized over 804 kg of hard drugs in 2025 alone and convicted 38, who serving their sentences.
“This year alone, we have arrested 312 suspects in Akwa Ibom. If you look at the people we have arrested, the cost to their families and communities is very high. The cost of drug abuse, if you look at our society today, you will find out that violent crimes are increasing like kidnapping, rape, armed robbery due to drug abuse.”
Bassey appealed to the association to assist the agency in logistics in order to carry out their mandate effectively, adding that “the agency has been carrying out sensitisation programme every week to disabuse the mind of people on drug abuse in the state while lamenting that the country was losing young people to drugs.”
She thanked the association for its anti-drugs advocacy and for recognising the NDLEA in the fight against the numerous crises facing the country.
The president of NAS, Pyrates Confraternity Atlantic Shores Deck, Eket, Idongesit Ifon, pledged the commitment of the association to the fight and warned that any member caught for drug abuse would be expelled.
“My members do not get involved in drugs, anyone that is caught, would be expel from the association,” Ifon said, noting that “the country and communities were witnessing the corrosive effects of drug abuse from shattered lives and broken families to rising crimes, poor mental health and weakened institutions.”
