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From Godwin Tsa, Abuja
Chairman, National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), Brig. Gen. Mohamed Marwa (retd.), has warned officers of the anti-narcotics agency that the war against illicit drugs has no end date, describing it as a generational responsibility that will outlast any single cartel bust or the closure of any smuggling route.
Marwa gave the charge yesterday at the NDLEA’s 12th Chairman/CEO’s Commendations and Awards ceremony held at the agency’s national headquarters,Abuja.
At the ceremony, 274 personnel were honoured for outstanding performance, while 18 best-performing commands and 19 non-governmental organisations and media organisations were also recognised for their contributions to the War Against Drug Abuse (WADA) advocacy campaign.
“The war against illicit drugs is not a campaign with an end date. For every cartel we dismantle, intelligence tells us another will attempt to rise. For every corridor we shut down, traffickers will search for another route,” Marwa said.
The NDLEA boss used the occasion to acknowledge the contributions of civil society organisations and journalists as force multipliers in the fight against drug abuse and trafficking, stressing that enforcement alone could not defeat the menace.
He said NGOs had continued to work within communities to help young people overcome addiction, while journalists had told difficult stories about trafficking routes, rehabilitation and families affected by drug abuse.
“Our partners in civil society and the media have been the multiplier effect on everything this Agency does. You have taken our message into homes, schools, and communities that our uniforms alone could never reach,” he said.
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Marwa acknowledged that many deserving organisations and media platforms were yet to be recognised, describing the ceremony as “the beginning of a tradition, not a closed chapter.”
He promised that subsequent editions would expand recognition to more individuals and groups contributing to the fight against illicit drugs.
The NDLEA chairman cited three major operations which, according to him, demonstrated the agency’s character and commitment over the past year.
They included the dismantling of the Amadi Simon drug cartel; the takedown of two Nigerian-Mexican methamphetamine cartels operating from forests in Ogun and Oyo states; and the disruption of a tramadol cartel exploiting the Togo-Benin Republic-Nigeria corridor, which he said had for years contributed to opioid abuse among Nigerian youths.
“These were not simple raids. They were the product of patient intelligence-gathering, cross-border cooperation, and officers willing to go where the criminals believed no one would follow,” he said.
Marwa urged NDLEA officers to regard the award recipients as benchmarks to aspire to rather than a ceiling on their achievements.
He equally charged civil society and media partners to see the recognition as an invitation to deepen their contributions to the anti-drug campaign.
He thanked the families of the award recipients and Nigerians who continue to place their trust in the agency, stressing that the collective fight against illicit drugs required sustained commitment across generations.
