NDLEA Chairman Brig. Gen. Buba Marwa (retd.) has revealed that the agency has recovered N90bn worth of drugs, cash in five months.
Gatekeepers News reports that the Chairman of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, Brig Gen Buba Marwa said the agency recovered over N90bn worth of illicit drugs and cash from suspected drug traffickers from January to May 2021.
Marwa also disclosed that over 5,000 persons had been arrested for drug-related offences while the agency had secured more than 500 convictions within the period.
He said it was important to awaken the consciousness of all Nigerians on the urgent need for them to support the NDLEA in its effort to save the country from the menace of abuse and trafficking of illicit substances to safeguard the future of Nigeria.
Marwa stated this in Ibadan, Oyo State, South West, Nigeria, at the public presentation of a book, ‘Victory in Defeat’, written by Brig Gen Larinde Laoye (retd).
Director, Media and Advocacy, of the agency, Femi Babafemi, quoted Marwa in a statement to have said leaders at all levels “must attach some urgency to the need to rid our society of the drug menace”.
“Our record at the NDLEA in the first five months of this year calls for sober reflection: over 5, 000 arrests; over 3,000 charged to court with more than 500 convictions, 2, 772 individuals were counselled and treated for drug-related problems. More than two million kilograms of assorted drugs were seized and over N90bn worth of drugs and cash recovered.
“These statistics are alarming and are red flags about the need to safeguard the future of the young generation.
“That is why we are advocating a new social order where drug test becomes the norm – for couples as part of the wedding rites; for students as a continuous process, starting from admission into tertiary institutions; and for government employees, as part of the employment process and periodic validation of their employment.
“We came from all the corners of this vast country of ours – North, East and West – united in a common purpose to honour our brother and felicitate with an illustrious citizen. In our common fellowship here today, there is no room for ethnicity, religious bias, or political differences. We are here as one big family, as a microcosm of Nigeria.
“At a time we daily hear of discordant tunes in the political firmament of our dear country, here we are gathered as one people; if nothing else, this occasion is an attestation that our perceived irreconcilable differences are but mere optics that are artificial and transient. That is one big lesson we should take away from this occasion today.”
Marwa further called on all leaders and stakeholders across the country to see the urgent need to rid Nigeria of what he described as a “drug scourge”.
