The New Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), retired Brigadier General Mohammad Buba Marwa has bemoaned the rise in the number of drug users at over 15 million in Nigeria.
Marwa who lamented the growing population of drug users during his inaugural address at the NDLEA headquarters Abuja, the nation’s capital pointed out that about 14.3 million Nigerians between the ages of 15-64 were in 2018 found to be drug users.
The former military administrator of Lagos and Borno States vowed to overhaul and expand the NDLEA in line with the recommendations of the Presidential Advisory Committee for the Elimination of Drug Abuse (PACEDA).
He said that the agency would put equal efforts in drug demand reduction as contained in the NDLEA act and develop a strategy to meet objectives in the National Drug Control Masterplan 2021 – 2025 as a roadmap.
He also promised to safeguard the country and Youths from the drug menace.
“I would like to warn those who engage in the dastardly trade of importation, export, cultivation, processing, manufacture, trafficking, sale and consumption of illicit substances to stop forthwith or be prepared to contend with the NDLEA,” the Chairman stated.
Before his appointment, Brig-Gen. Buba Marwa was Chairman, Presidential Advisory Committee for the Elimination of Drug Abuse (PACEDA) between 2018 and December 2020, along with others to develop a blueprint on how to end drug abuse in Nigeria.
PRNigeria/PIAK
