The chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), Mohamed Buba Marwa, has said that no fewer than 14.3 million Nigerians are into drug abuse, cannabis being the most abused substance.

Marwa, who spoke at the weekend during this year’s Ogidi Day Festival in Ogidi-ijumu, Kogi State, said most of the culprits were young people and adults from the age of 16 to 64 years.

He stressed that no fewer than 10.6 million people had become addicted to cannabis in the past years, adding that what was most heartbreaking was that the majority of them were young people who were initiated into cannabis use around the age of 19.

According to him, there was also an increasing use of other psychotropic drugs, especially heroin, again, by a growing number of young people who he said were mostly initiated at the age of 22 years.

He called for prayers for God’s intervention in the nation’s worsening security challenges, saying that the state of insecurity in the country called for sober reflection.