NDLEA Records 3,111 Convictions, Confiscates N420bn Drugs …Says Drug Barons Assassinating Operatives

National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has said it arrested 19,341 drug traffickers, seized 5452kilogrammes of illicit drug worth N420billion, as well as recorded 3,111 convictions between January, 2021 and September, 2022.
The chairman/Chief Executive Officer, NDLEA, Brig.-Gen. Mohammed Buba Marwa (rtd), stated this, yesterday, when he appeared before the House of Representatives Committee on Narcotics to defend the 2023 budget proposal of the agency.
Marwa added that the agency has also destroyed 714 hectares of cannabis, as well as counselled and rehabilitated over 12,326 persons in its rehabilitation centres within the same period.
The NDLEA boss, while stating that there is need for the agency to be adequately funded, said about 15million Nigerians are abusing drugs.
Nevertheless he noted that the agency is up to the task of combating drug offences in the country.
According to him, “From January, 2021, we have arrested over 19, 000 drug barons, about 28 are with us. We have seized 5,452million kilogrammes of illicit drug. The value of what we have seized comes to over N420billion.
“We have sent over 3,000 to jail, and we have counselled over 12,000 in our rehabilitation centres.
“We have also destroyed cannabis farms of 714 hectares. The advocacy work we are doing across the country to persuade people to know that taking drugs is harmful.”
He added, “In the course of 2022, I am glad to mention that the agency made history by recording the largest seizure ever of pure cocaine weighing over 2.1 metric tonnes, which is worth $315million or over N230billion. We have received a court order and have already destroyed it.
“This was a unique operation, because we were able to arrest the five barons involved who were located in different parts of Lagos. We had to coordinate it properly so that none would be arrested one minute earlier than the others because they will alert the others and they would escape. But we were able to do it clinically for those five at the same time in one night.
“We are resolute in rising to the challenge of our mandate which is to eliminate the cultivation, processing, manufacturing, sale, trafficking and use of illicit drugs and psychotropic substances.”
Marwa also said drug barons were assassinating operatives of the agency in the renewed fight against drug abuse in the country.
Against this background, he emphasised the need for the urgent provision of barracks for operatives of the agency.
“The barracks issue is very critical to us because as we all know the NDLEA is very aggressive now against drug traffickers and the drug barons and when you arrest and prosecute them and send them to jail, they are not happy. So, they come after our personnel and with our personnel living in the town and cities and among them, we have been recording casualties and assassinations against them,” he said.
He said with the approval of the president, NDLEA is in the process of building barracks for its personnel for the first time.
He said it was also in the process of building three rehab centres, two forensic laboratories and procurement of security equipment.
He said the agency has concluded the acquisition of land in Adamawa, Abuja and Lagos for the barracks and the Private Public Partnership process is rounding off.
Marwa also said there was also a need to enhance the purchase of more arms and ammunition for the agency.
“We need to be fully armed with modern weapons that would outmatch that of the cartels, especially as we go after them in the deep forests,” he said.
He said N24billion was allocated to the barracks project in the 2022 budget and rued that it had been slashed to N13billion in the 2023 budget proposal.
He called for an additional N10billion for the projects.