''Nigerians to get NDLEA drug-free certificates before marriage''

Buba Marwa, the chairman of Nigerian drugs enforcement office NDLEA, has said young Nigerians would soon be required to certify themselves free from illicit drugs before they could get married.

Mr Marwa says parents will be asked to list drug-free documents as part of requirements for approving their children’s marriage.

Mr Marwa made the disclosure in Ado-Ekiti at a colloquium tagged: “Walk Away from Drugs’’, a programme organised by Ekiti Ministry of Justice He described the menace of drug use in the country as “worrisome’’.

“In Nigeria today, there is no challenge that is more worrisome than drug abuse.

“For instance, insurgency, kidnapping and banditry are seen as peculiar to certain parts of the country, but drug abuse has no boundary or respect for ethnicity or religion.

“The menace is so worrisome that within the last two months, more than N60 billion worth of illicit drugs have been seized and perpetrators arrested and prosecuted.

“If access to drugs is prevented, criminality can be reduced by 50 per cent,’’ Marwa said. He called for concerted efforts by stakeholders to campaign against the use of illicit drugs,” Mr Marwa said.