DRUG WAR...NDLEA gives
drug barons fight of their lives in the last four years
By Dipo Kehinde
Thursday, October 7, 2004
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narcotic agent destroying NDLEA seizures
PHOTO:Sun News Publishing |
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State funding for war against drug pushers had ceased for
three years, but the starving army of narcotic agents have
been celebrating victories.
Sharing the success secrets with Daily Sun, Chairman of the
National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), Alhaji Bello
Lafiaji, gave credit to determination and international support.
Lafiaji revealed while lamenting the plight of NDLEA that
the organisation had not received any capital vote in the
last three years. Yet, the boat has been kept afloat. When
asked if any drug dealer has ever made him an offer, Lafiaji
said: “No suspect sees me. Nobody sees me. Check my
record. The first commendation I get was on transparency,
I’m not the compromising type.”
As a former police officer, pioneer member of the National
Security Organisation (NSO) and State Security Service (SSS),
Lafiaji had all it takes to handle the herculean task of fighting
the drug war and moving NDLEA forward.
This year alone, about 48,042kg of drugs have been seized
and 2,082 persons arrested. The NDLEA is said to have also
done very well in the prosecution of offenders.
“Our score card on prosecution is 98 per cent,”
Lafiaji said. “We have about 100 lawyers. We have very
good rapport with the Federal High Court. We are all stakeholders
and we must work together to achieve results.”
Working with the late Justice Minister, Chief Bola Ige, Lafiaji
had pushed for some amendment in the money laundering act
at the National Assembly. And Ige had also physically attended
the trial of some drug pushers.
NDLEA gets its funding by the normal budget through the Ministry
of Justice. But there has been no capital vote in the last
three years. Lafiaji said: “At times, a year will run
out without any money given to NDLEA.” And so, the chairman
had gone cap in hand to the National Assembly, but his prayers
are yet to be heard.
Lafiaji, who will be four years in the saddle as the chief
executive of NDLEA, on October 10, on assumption of duty studied
the problems and potentiality of the agency that was battling
with several internal problems which had made it difficult
for the organisation to be fully focused on its statutory
responsibilities of tackling the drug menace head on.
According to the NDLEA progress report, the major problems
that Lafiaji had to tackle included inappropriate structural
arrangement; organisational identity crisis; division among
the workforce between the trained and untrained personnel;
absence of a functional training school in spite of the existence
of two training facilities in Jos; total absence of training
policy, agency regulations and conditions of service; dwindling
operational effectiveness and deficiencies especially in the
area of money laundering.
Other problems included poor rating in the comity of International
Drug Enforcement agencies; de-certification of Nigeria; on
account of unacceptable performance by the agency; very low
staff moral arising from a backlog of six years of problems
over suspended promotions and unresolved staff placement irregularities;
shortages of personnel, especially for operational activities;
shoddy suspect handling and inadequate funding.
To tackle these problems, Lafiaji fashioned out a new administrative
structure to eliminate unnecessary structures and establish
10 departments that would facilitate and enhance the operations
of the agency, among the departments known as Directorates
are Administration, operations, Inspectorate, Intelligence,
Demand Reduction, Money Laundering and Training.
To improve the conducts of personnel, NDLEA in 2001 formulated
what it called Agency Regulation, which has ensured that all
disciplinary matters follows approved prescribed procedures.
Also formulated was the job specification scheme. At that
time, most staff did not know what the job specifications
were, and internal wranglings were an everyday affair.
A records management unit was created because records were
being dispersed and uncontrolled to the extent that the staff
kept custody of their personal files. The situation was so
bad that the agency had no records of drug suspects, even
persons that had been handled at some point in time by the
agency.
In February 2001, massive promotions and harmonization were
carried out. About 96 per cent of the agency’s workforce
of 3,560 were affected.
For more than five years, before Lafiaji came, successive
administrations had shied away from promoting deserving officers
and rectifying placement anomalies. In July 2003, another
round of promotions were carried out, consistent with the
conditions established for the exercise in year 2001. Lafiaji
also cleared the wilderness of seized property on NDLEA premises
through an auction in 2001. About N14million was realized
and paid into the Federal Government coffers as prescribed
by law.
Lafiaji said: “The best way to deal with drug dealers
is to attack their assets, auction their cars and put the
money in the federation accounts.”
One of the greatest operational difficulties the agency had
is that of orientation. NDLEA was founded as a pot-pouri of
serving and retired personnel of the Army, Police, Customs
and Immigration service. They didn’t have a common orientation
and it was a major operational draw back. According to the
chairman, one main feature of this disjointedness was reactive
operational tactics, which did not serve counter-narcotics
well because drug dealers are highly dynamic in their ways.
A common proactive orientation was needed. And this was said
to have been effected. Lafiaji was proud to say that his men
even rejected a bribe of N50 million to compromise an arrest
of 60kg of cocaine worth N1 billion on the streets.
NDLEA records show that more cocaine and heroine are being
seized, but cannabis impounded last year was less than those
of previous years. And a total of 1455.05 hectares of cannabis
plantation had been destroyed. The agency now differentiates
among drug users, traffickers, distributors and sellers.
In the past, everyone found with drugs, even users were bundled
into detention centres, creating several attendant administrative
and logistics problems. Lafiaji believes that users need treatment,
counselling and rehabilitation, not detention and jail terms,
so he adopted an operational policy initiative that reinforces
the Agency’s Treatment and Rehabilitation responsibilities.
On training and capacity building, the NDLEA under Lafiaji
has seen to the reactivation of the Academy at Jos. And one
of the upgraded centres now serves as the African Regional
Academy for Drug Control and it is catering for training needs
of other Drug Law Enforcement bodies within the West African
sub-region.
The Academy recently graduated its first batch of International
students.
Still on training, it is now mandatory for all state commands
to hold an annual training week to hone the skills of the
agents. At the headquarters, a regime of monthly training
day has also been instituted.
One big headache that the NDLEA had at a time was that every
staff wanted to go for further studies.
As at December 2000, more than 60 per cent of the workforce
was in school. And the organisation suffered while the personnel
improved themselves. But, upon graduation, they came up with
the request for upgrading. While some of these requests were
discriminatingly approved, others were not. This created bad
blood within the organisation. Now Lafiaji has introduced
a new study leave policy. Beneficiaries must get approval
and sign appropriate bond agreements.
Working with other Drug Law Enforcement Agency in West Africa,
Lafiaji’s dream of a sub-regional organisation become
a reality. The first meeting was held in Nigeria and a legal
framework was drawn up. Now the meetings are rotated among
member nations.
The systematic international collaboration that has been pursued
since 2000 has yielded some positive results, in terms of
technical and logistics assistance.
Donations from the United States included, four pick-up trucks,
two 15-seater buses, two base stations for VHF communication,
40 pieces of Walkie-Talkies, x-ray machine supplied and installed
at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), four
itemisers and utilities, renovation and equipping of NDLEA
library and computer facilities at the Jos Academy and the
training of 50 officers by the USDEA.
There were also 12 computers from the German Police, repairs
and relocation of the old x-ray machine at MMIA to the Abuja
Airport and pending supply of two used vehicles by the German
Police to be dedicated to surveillance.
The United Nations Office on Drug and Crimes (UNODC) was said
to have provided $4million for the upgrading and conversion
of NDLEA Academy at Jos into a regional training Centre for
West africa.
The Ports Area Commanders at Apapa and Tin Can Island were
trained in Germany, on port security operations at the expense
of the German Police; there was free training in South Africa
for four officers on data analysis and dog handling to enhance
selection breeding and training of local dogs.
Based on its performances, the NDLEA has earned international
recognitions for counter-narcotics excellence.
Notable among these are the certification of Nigeria by the
USA for four years since 2001; recognition and commendation
in 2002 by the Executive Director of UNODC; admission of NDLEA
after four years of exclusion; admission of Nigeria into the
United Nations Economic and Social Commission (UNESCOSAC)
after four years of exclusion, election of Nigeria as Secretary
of the European Working Group of International Drug Enforcement
Conference; recognition as the arrowhead and spokes person
of the African Group of both Interpol and UNODC for war on
drugs; requests by Brazil, Argentina and South Africa for
assistance in dismantling drug syndicates based in their territories,
recognition of some NDLEA personnel as resource persons for
UNODC seminar on drugs and organised crimes; formal commendation
by FBI for investigative excellence and emergence of NDLEA
chairman as President of International Drug Enforcement Conference
(IDEC)
Also, there is increased USA willingness to contribute to
counter-narcotics efforts as evidenced by the recent announcement
of $100,000 assistance for the Jos Academy.
The NDLEA had also received supports from states, local governemnts
and multinational corporations.
In Nigeria, state governments had pledged to build a N50million
Rehabilitation Centre at Minna; the Kaduna State government
has released N3million for construction of parameter fencing
around the headquarters of the Kaduna state command of the
Agency and N250,000 are being released monthly to the state
command for drug demand reduction campaigns.
Vehicles were allocated to the Agency by the Gombe and Bauchi
State Governments. The Plateau state government has paid for
the construction of port of the pavilion, pavement and streetlights
at the Academy.
Rivers state has awarded contracts for the conversion of a
part of the office premises at Port Harcourt into a treatment
and rehabilitation facility and it has underwritten the annual
yearly training conference of the Rivers State command for
three years.
Government of Ebonyi, Katsina, Jigawa and Osun states have
allocated officers and residential quarters. State and local
governments in Kaduna have allocated vehicles and free radio
and TV air time for drug demand reduction campaign.
Edo State government is repairing the agency’s vehicles,
Delta State is assisting financially, the Nigerian Army has
allocated residential quarters at Badagry, Onitsha and Abakaliki
and an agreement has been signed with the Standard Trust Bank
to the tune of N9 million for public awareness campaigns.
In its efforts to adequately monitor drug dealers and their
transactions, NDLEA has mandated people travelling to countries
like Indonesia, Thailand and Pakistan, to get NDLEA clearance.
Suspicious transactions are also been monitored at the banks.
“For instance,” Lafiaji said, “If I’m
selling kerosene and I go to the bank and open account with
N50,000; then after a week you start seeing one million, two
million, three million naira and the thing is excallating,
that is suspicious transaction. So every week we go through
the transaction of every bank. And we have been organising
seminars for the banks, for them to know these suspicious
transactions.”
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