Brigadier-General Buba Marwa (rtd), the Chairman, National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), has briefed the House Committee on Drugs and Narcotics, led by Mr. Francis Ottah Agbo, on the unpleasant condition of NDLEA and the need for support and upliftment.
Marwa noted:
“We are indeed going to be very brief; this is both an advocacy visit and on the state of affairs at the NDLEA when I took over as Chairman. Nigeria today is in a serious dilemma on the drug scourge. The problem of drug abuse is everywhere now; every community in Nigeria has a drug problem now. It’s also fueling the criminalities going on.
“Nobody in his right senses, will wake up today and say he wants to kidnap 300 children if he is not under the influence of drugs. Now, criminals use ransoms for drugs. Criminality in Nigeria is fueled by drugs. Drug abuse is at the bottom of criminality in Nigeria. It’s the role of the NDLEA, to stop drug peddling, even though some of these crimes, are fueled by poverty and unemployment.
“When I took over NDLEA, I saw a handicapped agency. There are no training courses. The staff need to be trained and upgraded, but there is no money to do that. The training institutions at the agency, are dilapidated, and there is no equipment to fight drug barons in the country. Just recently, we seized 230 tons of drugs in Edo state, where armed villagers challenged officers to a duel with sophisticated weapons. But despite these challenges, we have been able to seize over N60bn worth of drugs and narcotics in the last 6 weeks.” He said that “the fight to control the drug trade in Nigeria, is a total fight; all strata of Nigerian society, must be involved. We can do our level best, but we cannot fight with bare hands.”