By Lateef Ibrahim, Abuja
A group, the Muslim Media Watch Group of Nigeria (MMWG) has commended
President Muhammadu Buhari for changing the leadership of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA).
The group made the commendation in statement yesterday on the appointment of Retired Brigadier-General Mohammed Buba Marwa as the new Chairman of the Agency.
It declared that Nigeria cannot succeed in its war against insecurity if NDLEA is not properly positioned to do its duties and responsibilities,
The group appealed to the Federal Government to mobilise the Agency financially to recruit and deploy facilities to combat drug Crimes.
In the statement signed its National Co-ordinator, Alhaji Ibrahim Abdullahi, the group described the appointment as ‘a welcome the development’.
The Media Watch stated that it had persistently condemned drug addiction especially its prevalence among Nigerian youths and some criminal elements in the Society stating that no doubt the upsurge in criminality in Nigeria in the past three years (2018 to date) has been observed to have been influenced by alcohol, narcotics and other dangerous drugs.
According to the Group, “Nigeria today faces the challenge of terrorism, insurgency, kidnapping, abduction, armed robbery, banditry, rape and other criminal activities most which are committed by the youth between the age of 15 and 35”.
While wondering about the rampant prevalence of these crimes in our Society in spite of the existence and operational activities of National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA ) the group said that its investigation revealed that the Agency suffers from inadequate funds, mismanagement of the little resources available, lack of manpower, equipment, facilities, regular training and retraining of its personnel, low-morale of workers due to lack of incentives and welfare packages as well as poor sensitisation of the masses in the Media on dangers of alcoholism and drug-addiction.
It noted that NDLEA has been reduced to rehabilitation centre where discharged mentally imbalanced youths that suffered from drug-addiction are rehabilitated.
The group stressed further that In some cases, “NDLEA does not have sufficient funds to take care of the inmates of the Rehabilitation Centres, as families of the victims are called- upon to bring food, money and wearing apparels to take care of the inmates.
“These ugly incidents must be reversed to pave way for good citizenship in Nigeria”, MMWG urged.
The group noted with regret that in the present Nigeria, “all the State Capitals and their suburbs harbour illegal beer parlours, Indian hemp and illicit drugs Joints are so rampant to the extent that security agents especially the Police know all those locations and refused to raid them to arrest criminals terrorising the people.
