Marwa charges Council Chairmen on grassroots advocacy, drug tests, others

The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) and the Association of Local Governments of Nigeria (ALGON) have agreed to work together to curb the menace of substance abuse and illicit drug trafficking in communities across the country.

This was one of the agreements reached at a meeting when the National President of ALGON, Hon. Aminu Muazu Maifata led other leaders of the umbrella body for all local government chairmen in the country on a courtesy visit to the Chairman/Chief Executive Officer of NDLEA, Brig. Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa (Rtd) at the Agency’s headquarters in Abuja.

Addressing the ALGON leaders, Marwa expressed the preparedness of NDLEA to work with the council chairmen to ensure that people at the grassroots are well-sensitized about the dangers of abusing illicit drugs and also provide help for those already indulging in unhealthy habits.

According to the NDLEA boss, “We’re particularly happy that you’re here to identify with our work and partner with us because you are the closest tier of government to the people especially the grassroots and our communities where the majority of Nigerians reside. This is more so because the drug scourge is in virtually all our communities, no community across the country is spared and as such, we need your partnership to cascade all our efforts in terms of drug demand reduction and even the supply reduction, down to the remote communities.

“This partnership is also important coming at a time when we’re deploying our personnel to the local government areas to establish our physical presence in the rural communities so that we can support you to curb the scourge of drug abuse and illicit drug dealing, which fuel crimes and criminalities in those areas.”

He encouraged the ALGON leaders to mobilise their members nationwide to set up local government drug control committees and war against drug abuse, WADA, committees comprising traditional rulers, community gatekeepers, opinion and religious leaders as well as market and women groups, among others at the community level. These committees similar to what obtains at the national and state levels, he said, will work with NDLEA commands to coordinate the fight against the drug menace in the communities.

He encouraged them to also take advocacy and drug tests as major components of their efforts when they return to their local governments to begin implementation of the various strategies discussed at the meeting. He added that to make drug tests easier, the Agency has mass-produced quality test kits easy to use at home, offices and others with the aim of early detection and providing treatment for those who test positive as well as engendering deterrence.

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In his remark, the ALGON National President, Hon. Aminu Maitafa lamented the negative impact of drug abuse on the health, businesses and security of lives and property at the grassroots while expressing the commitment of the body to works with NDLEA to ensure that the ugly development is urgently reversed.

“As the body of local governments in Nigeria, we appreciate the enormous work this Agency is doing under your leadership and that is why we have come to partner with you so that we can collectively stamp out the drug abuse problem from our communities.” He assured that they will place necessary structures that will facilitate the deployment of NDLEA personnel to their council areas.

Other ALGON leaders at the meeting include Mr Itiako Ikpokpo, Director General; Hon. Bala Chamo, National Publicity Secretary; Hon. Aminu Jairo Hassan, National Welfare Officer; Hon. Adamu Bukar, National Auditor; and Hon. Shehu Jega, Chief of Staff to the National President.