Our lives constantly under threat from drugs cartels – Babafemi, NDLEA spokesperson

Director of Media and Advocacy, National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) Femi Babafemi, says the agency’s recent breakthrough in arresting some of the drug cartels across the country has put their men under serious threat from these drug barons. In this exclusive interview with Ben Ogbemudia, the NDLEA mouthpiece talks of plans to subject politicians and other public servants to drug test.

How has it been since the coming in of Brig-Gen Buba Marwa (retd) as head of the agency?

One of the cardinal thing in the agency is the new leadership that has impacted it’s policies on the officers and the men of the agency to the point of motivating them to go all out and achieve results, so that is why you see NDLEA all out across all operational points airports, seaports, land borders and across all the states of the federation, that is why you see activities whether at the level of drug supply reduction which is the law enforcement, or at the level of drug demand reduction which is the area where we try to do a lot of advocacy to educate people, create awareness and through that prevent people from going into drug abuse or even those already into it, we bring them help through areas platforms whether counselling and treatment centre that are attached to at least twenty six(26) of our command offices across the country, or even for those that may want to take advantage of our therapy using our free help line to seek for assistance, anybody in any part of the country can make use of the free help line which is,( 0800010203040) to call and seek for assistance, there are mental health experts as well as counsellors, phycologists as well as psychotherapist who attend to callers 24/7. They run shifts there, and through that, they can attend to people more efficiently, those that need admission into rehab centres, they direct them to the closest rehab centre to them they also a follow-up to ensure they get adequate service and after that, they also do post- rehabilitation to ensure people don’t go back to drug addiction. All of that we do in the area of drug demand reduction and with all of this, we have seen how we’ve been able to use the main advocacy tool or initiative that is called “ War Against Drug Abuse “which was launched precisely on June 26, 2022, by President Muhammadu Buhari himself to drive all those activities and at the basis of all of this, whether at the level of drug supply reduction or the level of drug demand reduction, it is the major strategy document which is called “Our Drug Control Master Plan 2021-2025”. The document has been produced as a road map to how the country can overcome the challenges of drug abuse and drug trafficking, so all of that we have followed to the latter and we are still going to continue in that process.

Ahead of the 2023 general elections, the agency has said it would subject politicians to drug tests, what is slowing down the plan, or is it that the agency does not have the willpower to execute the proposal?
I will tell you, we are very determined about that and I can also tell you that we have the support of the highest authority in the country in everything we do as far as it has to do with this drug trafficking in our country. However, when it comes to drug integrity test, it is not a demand of the law, it is an advocacy initiative so you can’t compel anybody, you can only encourage them and we are glad that we are getting positive responses from a lot of people, and don’t forget, this is not targeted at politicians or political office seekers alone, this is targeted at everybody across the society, we are also asking students especially fresher’s in higher institutions, we are encouraging the school to make this an institutional policy that the students coming in as fresher’s will undergo the drug test so that we can know early enough those that are already into drug abuse, so that they don’t come in to impact negatively or influence those that are clean within the system, so that is why the drug test is important, because you will be able to separate them from those that are clean, beyond the fresher’s those that are also returning students, because don’t forget that even for those who are fresher’s who may be clean in their first attempt may go home, mix with different people who may be drug addicts. And what all this is aimed at doing is not politics at all, the goal is wanting to identify people who are already into this so that we can bring them help early enough. Apart from students, we also look at the working class, whether in the private or public sector, we are glad that a lot of government institutions today are working with NDLEA to conduct this test on their workforce, so now for the political class, we are also advocating this because anybody who is going to represent the people must have a sound mind, people that can take best decisions for their community or constituency, not somebody who is a drug addict and is always absent-minded, aside that, not somebody who will spend the funds that are meant for the development of the community to buy drugs. So, that is the whole essence of saying that, those seeking political positions, not necessarily at the presidential level but starting from the counsellors of the community, local government chairmen, and House of Assembly candidates, and we are glad that some states are already doing this, we can pick-point Kano. But because it is an advocacy that is why you can’t compel anybody, and we have seen political parties that have written to the NDLEA seeking the partnership of this, expressing their readiness to work with the agency on this, so we are glad that it is an advocacy that is taking ground and we are also glad that we are getting feedback from our lawmakers that they are likely to put this as part of the law in the amendment bill of the establishment act that is over-going amendments the moment, meaning we are getting the kind of awareness we want in the political class and we are also getting the full operation we desire at the moment.

What is the agency doing to stem the fragrant display and use of drugs by musical and movie stars?
Well, don’t also forget that within the entertainment industry we have arrested a number of them at least I can give you an instance where one of them was persecuted and convicted, we have also seen instances where we have caught some of them and the court asked that they should go for rehabilitation, so for us, nobody is above the law, the law is the law, if you are caught, you face the consequences and that is the position of the law, so, no sector is above the law, whether in entertainment, construction, education not even public sectors. However, we also know that there are people within the same industry who are responsible enough to also kick against the attitude of some of their colleagues who glamorize the abuse of these substances, just like in any sector, they are always the bad and good ones. Now, for those in the entertainment industry we have tried and still trying all we can do to work with a number of them so that we can have the majority pushing out positive messages, the messages that dilute the negative messages by some of them that are promoting the drug abuse culture, In that regard, we have tried to take steps had meetings with prominent actors so we are looking forward to fully operate with them so that they can work with their colleagues to ensure that the content they push is the kind of content that will impact positively on millions of their followers. Beyond the Nollywood sector, we also ensure that we are using the platform of a group called ‘Drug-Free Celebrity Club’ which is a platform that has prominent people within the entertainment industry working with the agency to ensure that those in the entertainment industry produce positive contents, and we are also working with the Kannywood industry so they can also produce positive and easy to understand content using pidgin. So all of that we are doing to ensure that we have more positive drug abuse messages than those that glorify the abuse of hard substances.

Former Lagos MILAD’s son, Olaolu, killed by hit & run driver

We see of recently the agency was involved in the breaking of high-profile drug cartels, is the agency in any way receiving threats from them?
Let me say that the drug war anywhere in the world is a very dangerous one and one thing the current leader of the agency has vowed is to make sure he went beyond arresting the distributors that distribute to these cartels at their doorstep, and I’m glad to say that in the last 22 months and as today we have 29 of those distributors in our net ensuring that we cripple their activities, this is people that used to be untouchable or even invisible because they have built a lot of layers to shell themselves, but now we are breaking all of those layers down and getting them at the top. For us, that is a great move and it is getting us results, as of today we have made more than 21, 000 arrests in the last 22 months, and we’ve had over 3, 434, 000 convictions and beyond that in those operations we’ve taken more than five million kilometres of assorted illicit substances that is substantial because for every gram that we take is a gram less to what is available on the streets, and also the prices for this substances have been made high so making it difficult for people to easily purchase.

Is any threat coming?
As I said, it comes with the risk, just like the chairman himself has rightly said in several public statements that some of them have gone to the extent of taking the names of the top officials of the agency to their juju makers for some mischievous purposes, and some of them have also gone to those places to seek for the appropriate days move their illicit substances, but all of those have not worked for them instead we have shown professionalism and capacity in dealing with them.

What is the dream of the agency?
For what is going on at the moment, the dream of the agency at this moment is to ensure that beyond where we are now, see the agency as not just the best in Africa, which I can say we are now, but to be among the first best three in the world, in the next couple of years, when we are talking about the DEA of the US, we can also mention the NDLEA of Nigeria to be a part with her cohort in the developed world, in the western world where we can conveniently work with those agencies pushing the war against illicit substance abuse to the point where those that are abusing will see reasons why they shouldn’t do that, and those that are trafficking for them to also understand that there are consequences for their actions. That is exactly where we are looking to see the agency in the next few years with the ongoing reforms and the intensity of the operations of the agency.