surveyed in Africa include benzodiazepines such as diazepam and chlorpromazine while 3.7 per cent inject themselves with drugs. In this report, GBENGA OLONINIRAN writes about drug-addicted children’s battle against brain disorders and violence
According to him, he became scared of the boy when the shop owner asked him to leave because he did not want trouble. The tale of young boys causing terror in Lagos has been recurring, and in many cases, this was linked by most of their victims and other residents to their abuse of hard drugs.According to the World Health Organisation, cannabis remains the most widely used illicit substance in the African Region. The highest prevalence and increase in use is being reported in West and Central Africa with rates between 5.2 percent and 13.5 percent.
“This is Mile 12 my brother. These are notorious Lagos areas. Those boys start from a tender age like this. They run errands for the elderly. Some of the boys are already smoking. The ones that are not smoking are exposed to the smoke. The spokesperson for the Lagos State Police Command, Benjamin Hundeyin, said the police would review their strategy to improve security when a motorist, Samson Olanrewaju, was robbed inside traffic in late August by some boys numbering seven in the Ijora Olopa area of the state. “They were small boys, and they had weapons,” Olanrewaju told our correspondent. People who witnessed the incident said the yet-to-be-identified boys were also reeking of substances suspected to be Indian hemp.
Moyo noted that the menace was not limited to the male gender, saying apart from drugs; young girls were exposed to prostitution. A resident, Henry Ajinde, who conducted our correspondent in the area showed our correspondent a newly constructed pavilion sharing a fence with Orile Agege Secondary School.
Risiqat said, “It happened last term. You know all these children, somebody brought the drink, and you know ‘give me, I want to drink.’ That was what happened. One of them was just misbehaving. He did not even know what was put inside . But we were able to make him calm, and he became okay. The person who gave him that drink was punished. We suspended him and invited the parents. In fact, the student is no longer in the school. He was a former JSS 3 student, but we punished him.