The chairman of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, Brigadier General Buba Marwa has revealed that the agency arrested 23,907 drug traffickers, including 29 drug barons, in the space of 22 months.
The chairman said this on the occasion of the anti-narcotic agency promoting about 1,018 officers at the NDLEA headquarters in Abuja on Tuesday.
Relevant excerpts from the full statement read: “Within the period under review, the agency arrested 23,907 drug traffickers, including 29 barons. Our seizure was over 5,500 tons or 5.5 million kilograms of assorted illicit drugs, which together with cash seized are worth over N450bn.
“In these 22 months, we have recorded the conviction of 3,434 offenders. We have equally made good strides in our drug demand reduction efforts, where the number of those counselled and rehabilitated is 16,114.
“The figures are mere statistics until you view them through the lens of human impact and the good or harm that could have come to society, the impact on public health, security, as well as law and order if those dangerous drugs had gone to the streets. Take, for instance, the one hundred million pills of tramadol seized in the past 22 months.
“If those pills had gone into circulation and ended up in the hands of young people, they would take a heavy toll on lives, families, productivity and, ultimately, the GDP of the country because they will affect these young people who are the engine room of productivity.”
