I was unlawfully dismissed for exposing corruption -Ex-NDLEA officer

From Godwin Tsa, Abuja

A former operative of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), Mr. Williams Olanrewaju, has dragged the agency alongside four others before the National Industrial Court of Nigeria (NICN), Abuja,  for alleged unlawful dismissal from service while exposing corruption in the agency.

In a suit marked NICN/ABJ/248/2022, Olanrewaju exposed what he described as monumental corrupt activities in the agency.

The suit listed the NDLEA,  its chairman, Gen. Mohammed Marwa, Zirangeh Sunday Drambi, Samuel Okereke Abarogu (Assistant Commander of Narcotic, ACN); and Tapuyen Sunday, ACN, as 2nd to 5th defendants, respectively.

He specifically attributed his unlawful dimissal to his role in exposing alleged corrupt practices of some of his colleagues at the Special Enforcement Team/Sensitive Investigative Unit SET/SIU, Lagos, where he had worked between February 2016 to October 2019.

The claimant, who was respresented by a team of six lawyers led by Sunday Adaji, said he worked until March 24, 2022, when he was served a Notice of Punishment without management investigation and later “dismissed unlawfully.”

He told the court that he joined the agency in 2011 and rose to the level of Chief Narcotic Agent (CNA), adding that were it not for alleged victimisation, he would have been promoted to the rank of Assistant Superintendent of Narcotic before his summary dismissal from office.

The claimant explained that while working at the SET/SIU Lekki office, Lagos, he had issues with his senior officers over “their corrupt activities ranging from frustrating him from accessing vital information, collecting bribes from suspects, missing files, aiding and abetting, tampering with drugs seized, and seizure of drug from a drug courier and refusing to arrest the person caught with hard drug.”

In an affidavit in support of the suit, the claimant further stated that, “They saw him as a threat to their corrupt activities and so planned to get him out of the Unit, which they eventually did.

He also sought an order of court directing the NDLEA to pay him the sum of N90 million compensation as damages for the violation of his rights.