A Civil Society Organization, Stand For Humanity Foundation, in partnership with the Imo State Police Command, walked some streets in Owerri, the state capital, in awareness of drug abuse, cultism, and other social vices in the state.

The campaigners who converged on the Dan Anyiam Stadium in Owerri defied the rains, chanting songs, sharing handbills, and educating residents on the dangers of drug abuse as they danced around the state capital.

The lead campaigner and the founder of Stand For Humanity Foundation, Chidiebube Okeoma, said that the organization was partnering with the police in the state under the auspices of Police Campaign Against Cultism And Other Vices, POCACOV, to fight the scourge in the state.

Okeoma, a child rights advocate, told journalists at the Government House Roundabout in Owerri that an investigation carried out by the organization revealed that drug abuse was a major enabler of child abuse, adding, “If the war against child abuse launched by my organization in the state must be sustained, drug abuse must be eradicated in the state.”

Also, the State Commissioner of Police, Audu Garba Bosso, represented by the command’s spokesperson, DSP Henry Okoye, said that the exercise was part of the non- kinetic energy strategy deployed by the command to fight drug abuse, sexual violence and other related crimes.

Okoye, who added that the awareness march was also part of the command’s community policing strategy to make the state crime-free, commended Stand For Humanity Foundation for collaborating with the command to ensure that the state is crime-free.

The police officer in charge of the Antinarcotics Unit of the command, Ifeanyi Ikokwu, a Chief Superintendent of Police, disclosed that abuse of drugs was on the increase in the state and stated that the command was committed to working with every stakeholder to curb the menace in the state.

The Divisional Police Officer in charge of Shell Camp Police Headquarters in Owerri, Juliana Obidinanwa, in her lecture, decried the abuse of drugs even among teenagers in the state and called on parents to be on the lookout, saying that even secondary school students abuse drugs.

A comic actor, Osinachi Dike, popularly known as Apama, a professor of law, Otitodiri Onyema, and a renewed Human Rights activist cum broadcast journalist, Chinonso Uba, popularly known as Nonso Nkwa, urged Stand For Humanity Foundation and the police in the state to take the message to the hinterlands, adding that the success of the campaign must be sustained.

They decried the abuse of drugs by even secondary school students and advised that efforts should be made to ensure that teenagers no longer abuse drugs, else the dangers would be immeasurable.

Special Adviser to the governor of the state, Hope Uzodimma, on Youth Affairs, Eric Uwakwe, said that the state government supports every program that takes youths out of crime, assuring that his office would continue to partner with Stand For Humanity Foundation, the police and other Stakeholders in making the state peaceful.