There has been a beehive of activities at the National Drugs Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) Nigeria’s foremost anti narcotics agency since the appointment of Brig General Muhammadu Buba Marwa (Rtd) as its chairman and chief executive.
The agency, which hitherto was comatose and suffering from very low public perception, has since sprang up to life with the coming Marwa an ex-Lagos military administrator who is working round the clock to right the wrongs in this very important agency of government.
Within weeks from his assumption of office the agency has recorded unprecedented achievements particularly in areas that have to do with its core mandate of protecting the country from the menace of hard drugs and apprehending the cartel that engages in the ungodly trade.
The seizure of over N30 billion worth of cocaine at Lagos airport, N32 billion worth of cocaine at Tin Can Port, 200kg of drugs seized at Lagos, Kano, and Abuja airports is indeed commendable.
Also important to state is the arrest of over N60 billion worth of hard drug seizures, with the biggest being 233, 000 kg of cannabis in a community in Edo state.
To cap it all, there is this tale of a notorious drug baron who has been on the agency’s radar for some time now who has been arrested and modalities are being put in place to prosecute him.
Without sounding immodest, Nigerians have never had it so good with the NDLEA until this very moment. Some do not even know of the existence of the agency till the coming of General Marwa.
Understanding the importance of welfare of staff as a condition precedent to achieving maximum results, Marwa upon assumption of office constituted a harmonization committee that will fast-track the proper placement of staff in there appropriate cadres and settlement of genuine claims.
Marwa is also engaging in massive media advocacy, strengthening collaboration with sister agencies, and engaging the civil society in the agency’s activities.
The list of Marwa’s achievements in the agency keeps growing by the day with the recent creation of a strike force in the agency to be replicated in all the agency’s commands across the country with the sole aim of taking the fight to the nefarious elements
.
One might be tempted to say hard times await the bad boys with Marwa on the saddle.
Gaddafi Ibrahim Tanko,
Abuja
