The Chairman of the Nigerian Drugs Law Enforcement Agency, Brigadier General Buba Marwa (retd.), has called for more funding of the anti-narcotics agency, saying drug barons are tempting its officers.
Marwa made this known while appearing before the House of Representatives’ Committee on Drugs and Narcotics for 2022 budget defence in Abuja on Wednesday.
This is just as the committee skipped checking the books of the NDLEA’s 2019, 2020 and 2021 based on Marwa’s performance as the agency’s boss. The lawmakers focused on the 2022 proposal.
In his presentation, Marwa supported the proposal by the committee that the NDLEA should be drawing funds from the Police Trust Fund.
He said, “There are serious funding challenges and apart from being a detriment to our successful operation, there is another aspect of poor funding of an agency like the NDLEA.
“There is no business that is awash with funds anywhere in the world from unproductive efforts like the drugs business.
“We have billions (to contend with). So, when you do not fund the agency, the personnel have temptations; they are tempted by these barons. This is another aspect of the need for adequate funding so that personnel have their money.”
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According to Marwa, the proposal for 2022 is an improvement on the past budgets of the NDLEA, which he said was due to “the keen interest of the President (Muhammadu Buhari) on the challenges that we are facing and as well the Minister of Finance (Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed), who are committing to ridding the country of drug abuse.”
He said, “It is an improvement but there are critical areas that need enhancement in which we would rely on this committee to support us.
The usual MDAs’ budget envelope allocated for the Ministry of Justice was what we all shared. The budget is in total of N38,152,288,851.
“I would like to mention that the remuneration for the 5,000 newly-recruited personnel was not captured because the Ministry of Finance said until the 5,000 as a whole complete training, they would not include them. And after that, we should submit. And I believe they would consider it when the time comes.
“The appropriation and funding of the agency is inadequate to cope with their responsibilities. When I took over the agency, I bought my own television and furniture.”
Marwa also justified the demand for speedboats, saying, “The reason for patrol boats is because the cartels are becoming wary of our airports and the Seme border and other places; and now, they are using boats.
“For this reason, we have just established a marine (unit), which needs boats, and these boats are from the Navy. They build boats now, so they will be able to help us.
There is a need for us to acquire more arms and ammunition.”
