The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) and the Ministry of Education yesterday agreed on compulsory drug integrity test for students of tertiary institutions and the review of current secondary school curriculum to include drug education.

The agreement was reached when the NDLEA Chairman Buba Marwa met with the Minister of Education Olatunji Alausa in Abuja.

Marwa said:“The purpose of this visit is to seek collaboration with this esteemed ministry in our collective efforts towards drug control in Nigeria. “Our focus basically will be on schools and educational institutions.

“There are millions of our children that are under the supervision of this ministry, and it’s very critical. “The drug scourge, as we all know, is very high in Nigeria “Supported by President Bola Tinubu, within the last two years, we have made arrest of 40,887 criminal elements; gotten 8,682 convicted and seized 5,507 metric tons of illicit drugs.

In fact, from January last year to the present, opioids, that’s tramadol mostly, that we have seized, are in excess of one billion pills, which is worth more than N1 trillion.”

While stating that the President is also supporting the agency to build seven rehabilitation centres in addition to the existing 30 centres in NDLEA commands nationwide, said Tinubu has also approved the construction of one model rehab centre in each of the geopolitical zone in the country.

He listed three key areas he will want the Ministry and NDLEA to collaborate to effectively check the menace of substance abuse among Nigerian youths.

The minister commended Marwa for his steadfastness and commitment to the service of Nigeria. He noted that the drug scourge is a huge problem that must be tackled headlong.