NDLEA solicits more international co-operation
By Tunde Alao
THE National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has called on the international community to collaborate with it in fighting the menace of drug trafficking across the world.
Making the appeal in Lagos at the weekend during the second meeting with Drug Liaison Officers at its 4, Shaw Road, Ikoyi, the Chairman and Chief Executive of the agency, Alhaji Bello Lafiaji, said the organisation knows the need for and value of international collaboration.
Lafiaji observed that apart from United States Drug Enforcement Agency, the South African Police Service, the German Police and HMS Customs, interaction between the NDLEA and other countries has been almost non-existent.
He said the doors of the agency are open to other countries, as Nigeria is willing to collaborate with other nations that can be of assistance.
The need for collaboration is imperative, he said, since there are many Nigerians abroad in drug business who the agency wishes to apprehend.
"Similarly, there are many non-Nigerians doing drug business in the country and it is through Nigeria that their respective national authorities wish to apprehend them but could not because they are outside their jurisdiction. As such, every counter-narcotics agency needs intelligence to be effective by collaborating with one another", he declared.
Citing an ancient Greek philosopher, Epicurus, who said "the wise man must be wise before and not after an event", he said the creation of the mechanism for effective collaboration and exchange of intelligence will make "us all wise before the event".
He lamented that eight months after the first meeting with the drug liaison officers, the agency can only boast of real collaboration with the USDEA, HMS Customs, South African Police Service and the German Police, while it has initiated very strong moves for similar relationships with Indonesia.
Lafiaji, while praising the judiciary for effectively discharging its responsibility, said the agency can boast of 90 per cent success in apprehension and conviction of drug peddlers in the country.
The NDLEA boss had earlier charged the state NDLEA and special area commanders to demonstrate more sense of accountability and responsibility in their stewardship as the agency has renewed its efforts at combating drug peddling in the country.
It was in realisation of the enormity of the responsibility confronting the agency, Lafiaji said, that its former zonal structure, wherein a zone was made up of at least two states or more, was replaced with the state command's structure.
As such, he said the agency now has 37 state commands with the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), and 10 special commands and that this will ensure effective coverage of the nation's hinterland, air, sea and land boarders.
