Adedapo Adesanya
By Adedapo Adesanya
The Chairman/Chief Executive of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), Mr Mohamed Buba Marwa, has commended the German government over ongoing efforts to boost the operational capability of the agency towards its continuous efforts at fighting drug abuse in Nigeria.
This followed the plans to build a €2 million world-class narcotic detection dog training facility and the supply of dogs and vehicles to boost NDLEA’s operations.
Mr Marwa gave the commendation when Mr Jan Ritterhoff, BKA liaison officer at the German embassy in Nigeria paid him a visit to discuss modalities for the project’s take off.
He said drug trafficking was a complex and dynamic crime, which demands the agency to always be a step ahead of drug cartels. As such, he urged the German government to consider donating more dogs to the agency to be able to cover more areas of responsibility and enable it to intensify its war on drugs.
Mr Marwa said through the support of the Germans, a total of over 26 major arrests and seizures of narcotic drugs including cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine, ephedrine and cannabis with a combined weight of over 17.932 metric tons, were made with the assistance of the narcotic detection dogs.
In his response, Mr Ritterhoff commended Mr Marwa for the great transformation he has brought to NDLEA as well as the strings of achievements especially in the areas of seizures and arrests within a very short time.
He also expressed appreciation to the agency’s chief for granting speedy approval for the project to commence.
He assured that the dog school project where more narcotic detection dogs will be deployed and groomed will be completed in phases between the next three to four years.
