Nigeria records 621,035 drug seizures, arrests in 2019 -NBS

Nigeria recorded 621,035 drug seizures and arrests in 2019 as against 9,831 in 2018.

The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) made this known its Drug Seizure and Arrest Statistics 2019 published on its website on Thursday.

The North-Central geo-political zone recorded the highest number of drug cases with 517,711.69 cases.

The South-West and South-South zones followed with 44,744.13 and 28,885.85 cases recorded respectively.

However, the North-East region recorded the least with 4,490.81 drug cases in 2019.

A total of 397 counselling cases were reported in 2019 as against 730 in 2018.

Meanwhile, 397 counselling cases were concluded in 2019 as against 440 in 2018.

Also, 9,418 suspects were prosecuted in 2019 as against 9,779 in 2018 while 1,120 were convicted in 2019 as against 1,220 in 2018.

Furthermore, 612,547.89kg of narcotic drugs were seized in 2019.

The 2019 statistics revealed that the seizure made was against 163,684.44kg seized in 2018, representing an increase of 274.22 per cent.

Kwara was recorded as the state with the highest quantity of narcotic drugs seizure with 50,2604.6kg in 2019 as against 3,686.85kg in 2018.

The second highest seizure recorded was in Edo with 23,185.730kg in 2019 as opposed to 43,599.26kg reported in 2018.

Also, the third highest was in Ondo State which recorded 21451.070kg seizure in 2019 as against 26,496.21kg in 2018.

Meanwhile, 9,479 suspects were arrested in 2019 as against 9,779 in 2018, representing a decrease of -3.07 per cent.