…As agency intercepts N2bn worth of drugs at Lagos airport
The Chairman/Chief Executive Officer of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, (NDLEA), Buba Marwa, along with Directors, men and officers at the national headquarters of the agency in Abuja yesterday submitted themselves for a surprise drug integrity test.
According to the agency’s spokesman, Femi Babafemi, in a press statement issued yesterday, officials were taken unawares when upon resumption, the gates to the NDLEA headquarters office were ordered shut and everyone asked to gather in batches at the conference hall where a team of medical doctors were already assembled with their equipment for a urine drug test.
In a brief remark shortly before he took his test, Marwa said the impromptu test was necessary to ensure that charity begins at home.
“We cannot be asking others to undergo drug tests without submitting ourselves for the same. Coming out clean and negative gives us the moral authority to conduct the test on others. The essence of also taking everyone by surprise and inviting external medical personnel to conduct the test is to further strengthen the validity of the exercise”, he stated.
The test results already released by the medical team showed that Marwa returned negative along with the Secretary to the agency, Barr. Shadrack Haruna and other Directors.
Femi Babafemi also disclosed that has intercepted illicit drugs worth over N2 billion at the Murtala Mohammed International Airport, (MMIA), Ikeja, Lagos. The agency arrested three suspected traffickers in connection with the crime.
He quoted the Commander, NDLEA MMIA Command, Ahmadu Garba, as saying that one of the suspects, was arrested on Sunday. The Nigerian was apprehended during the outward clearance of passengers on Air Maroc.
7.1 kilogrammes of Methamphetamine, carefully concealed in food spices and packed in a Swiss polo suitcase, was found in his possession of the suspect. AThe NDLEA put the street value of the drug bound for Spain at N2 billion.
The statement noted that the closure of borders, occasioned by the COVID-19 pandemic, was responsible for the surge in the price of drugs.
