The Senate President of Nigeria, Ahmed Lawan, has alleged that criminal acts being carried out in the country are being funded by drug barons, which explains why Boko Haram, bandits, and kidnappers own such arms and ammunition.
This he said to Gen. Buba Marwa, the Chairman, National Drug and Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), during a courtesy visit to the National Assembly on Thursday.
According to Lawan, sponsors of drug traffickers who have made Nigeria a transit route for plying illicit drugs such as heroin, cannabis, and cocaine are responsible for the current insecurity plaguing the country.
He said; “I believe that this agency needs restructuring. Now that you have taken over, we should go the whole haul to restructure the agency, not piecemeal touches, because we need to get it right.
My personal opinion is that NDLEA should be in the league of EFCC, ICPC, and therefore, the kind of support that those two agencies I mentioned receive, you should receive something like that, in addition to many other things that you should be supported with.
So, the National Assembly will definitely work with you, we will partner with you, and will ensure that we do our best to give you the kind of support that will enable you to properly discharge your mandate.
Having said this, let me say that Nigeria as a country is in one way or the other a transit route for drugs. Drug peddlers pass their drugs through Nigeria.
We believe that this has to stop because the proceeds of such activities fund terrorism, they fund banditry, you wonder how the bandits have RPGs and these massive arms that they have. How? Definitely, these are acquisitions provided by some Barons not bandits themselves.”
Lawan while showing concern towards the yout,h who are being used as drug dealers, advocated that drug education should be included in the curriculum of schools and institutions of learning in Nigeria, and stressed the need for a Multi-dimensional approach of various agencies of government whose aim is to tackle the underlying causes of insecurity which is mostly caused by unemployment, illiteracy, and poverty.
He said; “We also believe that the drug addiction level in Nigeria is so bad that we are losing our youths to drug addiction. Like you have mentioned, the terrorists, the insurgents, the bandits, and almost all the criminals have recourse to taking drugs to enhance their courage in order to undertake their illicit activities. So, there then is the need for us to step up our work on preventing our youths from taking the drugs, and that requires a lot of multi-dimensional efforts, because some may be due to lack of employment, some illiteracy, and poverty generally. These are some of the root causes.”
In an earlier statement, Gen. Buba Marwa (rtd) had raised an alarm that drug addiction was responsible for most acts of criminality in the country, and called for an urgent intervention from the Sen. President as he warned “Nigeria is currently in a siege”
He said; “If you go to some other parts of the country and speak of kidnapping in some areas, it’s not a major concern. If you go to some other areas and speak of banditry, it may not be of major concern. But when you enter the realm of drug abuse, every part of Nigeria, you can for sure say that everybody in this room knows somebody or a neighbor or family that has affliction with drug abuse. Drug affliction is actually the number one problem we are facing, it is everywhere.”
