Chairman and Chief Executive of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), Brigadier General Mohamed Buba Marwa (retd.), has expressed confidence that the agency’s enhanced maritime capacity will significantly impact the war on drug barons and cartels.
This boost is largely thanks to the British Government’s support, including the donation of the NDLEA Marine Command Headquarters in Lagos.
Inaugurating the project on Wednesday, Marwa expressed his gratitude to the British High Commission in Nigeria for investing in this project, highlighting the timely delivery and high standard of the facility.
Our Correspondent reports that this isn’t the first time the British Government has supported the NDLEA; they previously donated a state-of-the-art facility at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport.
The British Government’s Home Office International Operations has also provided capacity-building initiatives and equipment, which have significantly enhanced the agency’s personnel capabilities and led to impressive drug seizures and arrests.
Marwa, while speaking during the inauguration acknowledged the British government’s efforts, emphasizing the importance of international cooperation in combating drug trafficking.
According to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, UNCTAD, “over 80 per cent of the volume of international trade is carried by sea, and the percentage is even higher for developing countries. This is equally true of illicit drug trade because maritime routes have long been exploited by drug traffickers due to the vast expanses of the open sea and the complexity of maritime laws and jurisdictions. The illicit drug trade via maritime channels poses severe threats, not only in terms of drug proliferation but also because of its links to organised crime, terrorism, and human trafficking.
“Recent records from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime indicate that West Africa remains an important transit region for narcotics, mostly emanating from South America. We have had at least four trafficking cases in the last two years involving merchant ships (aside from cases of drugs concealed in cargo containers) from South America to Nigeria. The cases are evidence that the maritime corridor provides mobility for illicit trafficking activity.”
He said the recent operational successes recorded by the NDLEA on the waterways and seaports justified his decision to upgrade the marine unit of the Agency to a full-fledged command in 2022.
“We did not make a mistake when, in 2022, we upgraded the Marine Unit to a full-fledged command. Our balance sheet of arrests and seizures of drugs within the maritime space has maintained an upward swing. The collaboration of the Agencys Marine Command with other maritime law enforcement agencies has resulted in the interception of 61,688.79 kg of varying drugs and the arrest of 41 suspects, 15 of whom are already prosecuted and jailed. Through our various port operations in the last three years, the Agency has seized at least 750 tons of illicit drugs ranging from cocaine to codeine, tramadol, methamphetamine and Loud, to mention a few,” he stated.
While calling for continuous collaboration among various security agencies operating within the maritime space, the NDLEA boss said “the operation of our Special Marine Squad on the waterways of Lagos has shown the increasing complexity of maritime drug trafficking. Aside from merchant ships, personal vessels, including luxury yachts, modified pump boats, and fishing trawlers, are also being employed in this growing drug trade. Countering this threat requires intense coastal monitoring and collaboration among security agencies to track, search and profile the various vessels on our waterways, as it is the case now,” he added.
In his remark at the occasion, British Deputy High Commissioner, Mr. Jonny Baxter justified why the UK government is supporting the work of NDLEA.
According to him, “it is also a delight to see such a wide range of people here at this event because from my perspective, that shows the level of commitment that we see from our Nigerian partners and colleagues to what is the really critical work carried out by the NDLEA in tackling drug trafficking. We in the UK support that work for a number of reasons. We’ve seen an increase in drug detections both in Nigeria and in the UK and so that shows us two things.
“Firstly, that there is a clear need for us to work together, to work collaboratively to tackle drug trafficking but it also shows that our efforts are paying dividends. We are jointly preventing more and more drugs crossing borders and we are disrupting more and more gangs and that is important for both our populations, both our countries but it’s mostly important actually for the people whose lives are disrupted by this crime but as we all know there is more work to do and it will definitely continue.”
