Chairman/Chief Executive of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), Brig.-Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa (retd.), has said he had to undergo a surgical procedure recently to treat a long-standing lower back pain caused by his sporting activities in his younger years in the Army.
Marwa said this while addressing reporters after a meeting with some French experts on drug supply reduction and law enforcement in his office yesterday in Abuja.
When asked if he was admitted in a London hospital to undergo surgery, as was rumoured, Marwa said: ”Indeed, I recently had a surgery for long-standing lower back pain that was due to my sporting activities in my younger years in the Nigerian Army. Aside from being an avid polo player, I was an active member of the Nigerian Army athletics team in the 1970s when I participated in the long jump and triple jump events and hockey as well.”
Dismissing other insinuations, the NDLEA boss said he has since returned to his desk to continue his vision of strengthening the agency and work towards reducing drug trafficking and abuse in the country.
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“As we speak, the assignment is on course. That’s the essence of the meeting with officials of Smiths Detection today,” he added.
Leader of the delegation and Executive Director, Africa, Smiths Detection, Mr. Gabriel Pequignot, said the meeting was called to discuss areas of partnership.
“You are a great partner, and we are here to discuss what we can do to support what you are doing,” he said.
Marwa stressed that the support from Smiths Detection “is a very important component of our work. We need the equipment to aid our task of drug supply reduction”.
The agency boss assured all that “NDLEA will continue in its stride towards the attainment of its ultimate goal of making Nigeria drug-free and will continue to respond strongly and appropriately to all issues of drug abuse and trafficking”.
He added: “While pursuing our drug supply reduction goals, we have intensified the War Against Drug Abuse (WADA) campaign across the states of the federation in pursuit of our drug demand reduction goal.”
Officials of Smiths Detection and their partners at the meeting included Gabriel Pequignot, Loic Le Bret, Hani Jaffar, Max Zanoul and Joseph Marc Khoury.
