Chairman of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), retired Brigadier General Buba Marwa has narrated how his officers and men arrested and prosecuting a top drug baron with N20 billion in 103 banks.
“We have arrested and are prosecuting so far 28 barons with seizures worth billions of naira. Indeed, one of the barons we found had 103 bank accounts with a total balance of over 20 billion naira, which we have frozen.”
The NDLEA boss spoke yesterday when he appeared before the House of Representatives Committee of Drugs and Narcotics to defend the agency’s 2022 budget performance and 2023 proposal.
He said that because of the fierce battle the NDLEA wage against drug barons, they are now after the operatives of the agency, adding that in the renewed efforts against drug war under his watch, the agency had arrested and is prosecuting 28 barons with seizures worth billions of naira.
NDLEA boss raised the issue of barracks accommodation for the operatives of the agency for their safety.
“The barracks issue is very critical to us because as we all know the NDLEA is very aggressive now against drug traffickers and the drug barons and when you arrest and prosecute them and send them to jail, they are not happy. So they come after our personnel and with our personnel living in the town and cities and among them, we have been recording casualties and assassinations against them.”
He said that the agency is in the process of building a barrack for NDLEA personnel for the first time following the intervention of President Muhammadu Buhari and well in the process of building three laboratory centres, two forensic laboratories and purchasing of security equipment.
He said that the agency has concluded the acquisition of land in Adamawa, Abuja and Lagos for the barracks and the Private Public Parternip process is rounding off.
The NDLEA boss said that N24 billion was allocated to the barracks project in the 2022 budget but now been slashed to N13 billion in the 2023 budget proposal and demanded an additional N10 billion for the projects.