The Governor of Plateau State, Barr. Caleb Manasseh Mutfwang and the Chairman/Chief Executive Officer of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), Brig. Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa have agreed to strengthen partnership so as to tackle drug abuse in the state.
Mr. Mutfwang and Gen. Marwa explained that the collaboration is geared towards curbing the scourge of substance abuse and illicit drug trafficking in the state.
According to a statement issued by the Director, Media & Advocacy of NDLEA, Mr. Femi Babafemi, they expressed their preparedness for the renewed partnership on Thursday when Governor Mutfwang paid Gen. Marwa a courtesy visit at the Agency’s National Headquarters in Abuja.
In his remarks, the NDLEA boss commended the governor for his commitment to ensuring peace, security of lives and property in the state.
He disclosed that a total of 6,975.6 kilograms of illicit drugs such as cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine, cannabis and opioids were seized across the state in the last two years.
This, he said has led to the arrest of 1,720 suspects and conviction of 156, while the trial of others are ongoing.
“To further strengthen the Agency’s drug demand reduction efforts, Marwa urged the governor to support with a standard rehabilitation centre, activate drug control committees at the state, local government and community levels, in addition to adopting drug testing policy in schools, homes and communities across the state,” the statement reads.
On his part, Governor Mutfwang lauded Marwa’s leadership skills in the turnaround and performance of NDLEA since he assumed the chairmanship of the Agency in 2021.
His words: “We’ve followed keenly your performance and we can say that since your coming on board, NDLEA has gone about its functions with more vigour, with more determination. And I know that quite a lot of the people who profit from trading illicit drugs have not found it easy since your coming on board.”
Commenting on the collaboration, he said: “For us on the Plateau, we’ve come because we are genuinely concerned about the impact that substance abuse and trading in illegal drugs is doing in our state and we want to seek better ways of collaboration.
“We continue to look for ways and means of trying to reduce the influence of substance abuse in our society. And one thing that is very critical, while we have paid a lot of attention to the demand side, to the user, we need to look again at the supply side.”
The Governor added: “On our part as a state, we are willing to be able to collaborate more with you and make sure that we reduce this menace to the barest minimum. And so, we’ve come today just to reinvigorate that cooperation.
“So far, we have enjoyed the cooperation of your staff in our state and we want to continue to do more, share information, share intelligence and see how we can collaborate.”
