The Muslim Media Watch Group of Nigeria (MMWG) has commended President Muhammadu Buhari the appointment of Brig.-Gen Mohammed Buba Marwa (retd) as the new chairman of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA).
MMWG in a statement signed by its National Co-ordinator Alhaji Ibrahim Abdullahi, Wednesday, it described the appointment as ‘a welcome the development’.
The Media Watch noted that it had persistently condemned drug addiction especially its prevalence among Nigerian youths and some criminal elements in the society, stating that no doubt the upsurge in criminality in Nigeria in the past three years (2018 to date) has been observed to have been influenced by alcohol, narcotics and other dangerous drugs.
According to the Group “Nigeria today faces the challenge of terrorism, insurgency, kidnapping, abduction, armed robbery, banditry, rape and other criminal activities most which are committed by the youth between the age of 15 and 35.
“While wondering the rampant prevalence of these crimes in our Society in spite of the existence and operational activities of National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA ) the Group revealed that its investigation revealed that the Agency suffers from inadequate funds, mismanagement of the little resources available, lack of manpower, equipment, facilities, regular training and retraining of its personnel, low-morale of workers due to lack of incentives and welfare packages as well as poor sensitisation of the masses in the Media on dangers of alcoholism and drug-addiction, it added.
MMWG stated further that “NDLEA has been reduced to Rehabilitation Centre where discharged mentally imbalanced youths that suffered from drug-addiction are rehabilitated. In some cases it said, NDLEA does not have sufficient funds to take care of the inmates of the Rehabilitation Centres, as families of the victims are called- upon to bring food, money and wearing apparels to take care of the inmates.
The statement partly read ” these ugly incidents must be reversed to pave way for good citizenship in Nigeria, MMWG urged.
“The Group also noted with regret that today in Nigeria – all the State Capitals and their suburbs harbour illegal beer parlours, Indian hemp and illicit drugs Joints are so rampant to the extent that security agents especially the Police know all those locations and refused to raid them to arrest criminals terrorising the people. So bad to the level of bad elements in the Police joining in committing the crime. Many big cities like Kano, Kaduna, Katsina, Jo’s, Sokoto, Lagos, Ibadan, Benin, Enugu etc parades large numbers of drug addicts.
“The Muslim Media Watch Group of Nigeria stated that now the Federal Government has responded to call of the masses by appointing a new Chairman of NDLEA in person of Retired Brigadier-General Buba Marwa, he should be supported fully with finance and all other logistics to reposition NDLEA to stem the tide of drug criminalities in Nigeria.
“The Group stated that Nigeria cannot succeed in its war against insecurity if NDLEA is not properly positioned to do its duties and responsibilities urging the federal government to mobilise the Agency financially to recruit and deploy facilities to combat drug Crimes”.
