By Austin Ajayi, Yola
The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), Adamawa State Command, has renovated an abandoned cell in its command to serve as an isolation center for arrested drug suspects before adding them to those already in their cell and are awaiting trials.
The Command has also granted bail to those that provided surety, all in an effort to reduce the spread of Corona virus in the country.
The Commander, NDLEA, Adamawa State Command, Mohammed Idris, while speaking with newsmen in his office said that most of the cases are pending because of the COVID-19 pandemic which halts court sittings and trials.
“The pandemic has affected almost everything and the Courts are not sitting so we have looked at the cases before us, grant bail to those that should and also sent those users of the drugs for counseling.
“We had 67 pending cases before the outbreak but as at today, we have 13 new cases during the outbreak making the total of 80 pending cases related to drug abuse and usage in our custody.
“You know the order from the federal government and advice from health personnel, we cannot continue lumping them in the cell.
” What we do is that we forward all cases to our legal unit for advice, and in most cases, they tell us that if the suspects can provide reliable surety that can provide them anytime they are needed, we should release them on bail and that is what we’ve been doing,” he said.
The Commander said that his command is currently renovating one of their holding cells to be used as an isolation center to keep suspects that cannot be bailed before they take them to the main cell.
He assured residents of the state that the command will not relent in its efforts of ensuring drug abuse is reduced to its barest minimum.
