Nigeria has been elected to host the next conference of Heads of Drug Law Enforcement Agencies in Africa, HONLEA, in 2023.
This was the unanimous decision of the regional network at the close of its 2022 annual meeting in Nairobi, Kenya.
The Spokesperson for Nigeria’s anti-narcotics agency, the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), Mr Femi BabaFemi who made this known in a statement explained that this followed the country’s good relations with other countries and the agency’s exemplary performance in the renewed fight against substance abuse and illicit drug trafficking.
The Chief Executive Officer of NDLEA, Mohamed Marwa led the Nigerian delegation in presentations where he shared that the country’s experience and successes so far recorded in the drug war were a result of bilateral and multi-lateral cooperation with other stakeholders in Nigeria, partners at both regional and international levels.
On the sidelines of the conference, he also led his team in bilateral meetings with his counterparts from Kenya, Gambia, Ghana and South Africa on areas of mutual interests such as intelligence sharing, joint operations, training and exchange programmes, among others.
They also agreed on the setting up of technical working groups on both sides to work on Memorandums of Understanding that would formalize the partnerships and working relationships.
Marwa emphasized the need to build new and strengthen existing partnerships among anti-narcotics agencies at the sub-regional and regional levels to make trafficking of illicit drugs and movement of drug syndicates difficult in the African continent.
PIAK
