Roli Bode-George: Drug barons, dismissed staff behind propaganda against NDLEA
The Director-General of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), Mrs. Roli Bode-George, has raised the alarm of ‘a calculated attempt’ by some drug barons to “rubbish the good works of the leadership of the Agency led by Alhaji Ahmadu Giade”.
Mrs. Bode George, who is also the Secretary of the Agency, said it was unfortunate that “while the international communities are celebrating the achievements of the Agency under Ahmadu Giade, some disgruntled elements, who never mean well for the country, are out to do a hatchet job possibly on behalf of drug barons. It is sure that they will fail woefully as they have always done”.
She traced the recent propaganda against the Agency to “some political jobbers who are in collusion with some disgruntled staff and discredited former staff of the Agency and possibly drug barons whose businesses are under threat to rubbish Ahmadu Giade, the Chairman, Chief Executive (CCE) and the entire management team of the Agency in spite of the good works done in the last 10 years. It is, however, clear that this government possesses an array of intellectual capacity and experience that will not allow itself to be misled on the true situation in the Agency as at today”.
She said it was unfortunate that the present situation in the country gives room for anybody to take advantage of the publicly declared anti-corruption stand of the current administration to attack the Agency.
She listed some of the achievements of the Agency to the discovery of six clandestine laboratories in Lagos and Anambra states, destruction of over 4,529.15 hectares of Cannabis farms in Osun, Ondo and Edo States “in one of our operations code named “Weed Eaters”, removal of Nigeria by the United States (U.S.) from the drug majors list thereby easing security checks and screening on Nigerians travelling outside the country, among others.
To her, it was unfortunate that “what is supposed to count as achievements due to the credible leadership of Giade, coupled with the patriotic efforts of the officers is being trivialised by propagandists for selfish agenda”.
What the traducers do not know, according to her, is that “NDLEA can boast of a well-trained and knowledgeable workforce capable of meeting the mandate of the Agency. This accounts for the impressive records of arrest, seizures and convictions in the last ten (10) years to justify its effectiveness as a drug law enforcement Agency. As a result of these improved Agency’s counter narcotic measures, most drug barons have relocated to our neighbouring countries”.
“The growing confidence of the international community on the integrity of the Agency has resulted in increased international collaboration with a number of drug law enforcement organisations around the world. The Agency is presently collaborating with a number of drug law enforcement organisations. These organisations include American Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA); National Crime Agency (NCA) of the United Kingdom; Federal Police (Fedpol) of Switzerland; BKA of Germany. Other countries with interest in collaborating with the NDLEA are France, Colombia, Brazil, Italy and South Africa amongst others. These collaboration and cooperation have brought a lot of benefits to the Agency. The benefits include: the establishment of the Special Enforcement Team (SET) involving the NDLEA and the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) of the United States of America; and the Combine Inter- Agency Task Force (CIATF) which involves the NDLEA, Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the National Crime Agency (NCA) of the United Kingdom. The focus of these engagements is on intelligence sharing, capacity building and logistic support.
“The European Union (EU) is presently funding a five-year intervention project for all organisations involved in the enforcement of organised crimes in Nigeria of which NDLEA is a major player. It is common knowledge that the collaborators mentioned above, by their known position against corruption, will not invest in an organisation that is corrupt or perceived as corrupt as the featured story serialised in a newspaper portrays. The fact that the Agency enjoys this international goodwill and continues to record successes in its operations as can be seen in the statistics of arrest seizures and asset forfeiture belies the propaganda by traducers.
“The Agency will continue to react as appropriate to all the lies and distorted facts calculated to rubbish the good works of the leadership and the management team of the Agency. As the historic saying goes ‘A prophet has no honour in his home’”.