Commander of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) in Akwa Ibom State, Mrs. Josephine Obi, has said that more than 29 public schools in the state are being used as centers for hard drugs trade.  She added that the command has written to the state’s education commissioner to take urgent steps to ameliorate the situation. Obi further stated that her decision to write to the commissioner was borne out of the fact that using schools to market hard drugs was likely to threaten performance of innocent students and rubbish government’s free and compulsory education policy.

She added that the command about a fortnight ago, uncovered a hard drugs market, where more than 200 persons including those who are physically challenged were trading.

Responding, the state’s Commissioner for Education, Mrs. Eunice Samuel Thomas, said she was not aware of the trend.

 “I have been interacting with principals and school heads on a regular basis and have personally visited some of these schools, but none of them ever informed me about this situation,” she said.