By Linus Aleke
A civil society organization under the umbrella of Human Rights Association of Nigeria (HURIWA), said, the Chairman of the National Drugs Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), Brigadier General Mohammed Buba Marwa (rtd), deserves a national honour for his relentless effort to rid the country of illicit drugs.
The group also said, the retired General has exhibited uncommon leadership traits, and high ethical values in the course of discharging his constitutional assigned task.
HURIWA in a statement signed by its National Coordinator, Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko, urged, President Muhammadu Buhari to confer the second highest national honour, “Grand Commander of the Order of Niger,” (GCON), on the NDLEA Chairman, now that Nigerians are pencilled down to be honoured with national awards by the President.
Onwubiko said, President Buhari’s administration will be remembered, even if for no other positive legacies but for making one of the best choices of appointing one of the few fearless, consistently patriotic, high valued and professionally trained military officer, Brigadier General Mohammed Buba Marwa (Retd), as the Head of the NDLEA.
He said, before the appointment of the former military administrator of Lagos State, as the Chairman of NDLEA, the agency had apparently collapsed under the heavy weight of alleged corruption, managerial inertia, administrative compromises and weak institutional enforcement of the relevant laws.
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The Rights Group however, added that General Marwa alongside his seasoned management team have reformed the NDLEA and also, waged successful war on drugs which primarily is targeted at uprooting the menace by cutting off the head of the snake by way of arresting the major barons fueling the drugs industry in Nigeria.
General Marwa’s administration, Onwubiko said, has infuse professionalism, discipline and competency on the operations of the anti narcotics agency and has made it one of the most respected law enforcement agency in the Country today
HURIWA said: “We in the organised civil rights community are pleased to note that the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has verifiably secured the conviction of 984 drug offenders and traffickers in the last six months. Just as the NDLEA has established rehabilitation centres to cater for the identifiable 15 million Nigerians who are into drug addiction, a situation that we in the civil Rights body think that this national emergency needs all Nigerians to combat for the sustainability and continuous human resource development in the country”.
HURIWA recalled too that few days back, the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) made the highest cocaine seizure in Nigeria’s history when the anti-narcotics agency announced the bust of a major warehouse in an estate in the Ikorodu area of Lagos containing about 1.8tons (1,855 kilograms) of the illicit drug, worth more than $278, 250,000, according to spokesman Femi Babafemi were recovered.
HURIWA is pleased that the NDLEA apart from discovering these huge amounts of hard drugs also arrested four significant drugs barons including a Jamaican and the warehouse manager, in an intelligence-led operation that lasted two days across different locations in Lagos.
