NDLEA combats drug traffickers with civil war guns, has only eight sniffer dogs-Rep reveals

By Kemi Yesufu

Chairman House of Representatives Committee on Narcotics Drugs, Rep. Francis Ottah-Agbo, has revealed how poor funding and outdated equipment is hampering the operations of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA).

The lawmaker disclosed in an interview with Frontline News Online that NDLEA personnel confront dangerous drug traffickers with guns some of which their models were used during the Nigerian civil war which ended in January 1970.

Agbo expressed regret that government has failed to see the strong link between the drug abuse and rising crime in the country.

He said: “Government at all levels in Nigeria treat the challenge of narcotic drug addiction with kid gloves. The agency saddled with responsibility of combating, reducing and minimizing drug trafficking is the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA); it has investigative and prosecutorial powers. It is a policing institution.  But I can tell you that in the last twenty years, what we’ve had is an agency that is under-staffed, poorly equipped and grossly underfunded.

“This is why narcotic drug addiction is progressing at a geometric progression, even among women. This is while the efforts and means of combating the menace of drug abuse progresses at arithmetic progression. As I speak to you, the availability and deployment ratio of vehicles by NDLEA is 6LGA/1 operational vehicle.

“The worst part of the agency’s problems is that drug traffickers and drug peddlers, move their products with sophisticated weapons, but over seventy percent of the weapons used by NDLEA were used during the Nigerian civil war. How can you use such antiquated weapons to chase and arrest criminals armed with sophisticated weapons? This is why I said earlier that government at all levels treat the abuse of narcotic drugs with kid gloves, leading to the current situation where drug addiction is progressing at a geometric progression, even among women, while the efforts and means of combating the menace progresses at arithmetic progression”.