…As Marwa calls for more resilience

THE Federal Government has honoured 274 personnel of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, (NDLEA), 18 commands, and 19 non-governmental and media organisations for their outstanding performance and unwavering commitment to the War Against Drug Abuse (WADA) advocacy across Nigeria.

Chairman and Chief Executive Officer (CCEO) of the NDLEA, Brigadier General Mohamed Marwa (retd),  hounoured the personnel and partners during the 12th Chairman/Chief Executive Officer’s Commendations and Awards ceremony yesterday in Abuja.

Presenting the honour awards, Marwa charged officers of the anti narcotics institution to remain resilient in view of the persistent nature of the drug challenge, describing the fight against illicit substances as a continuous and generational responsibility.

He said that “The war against illicit drugs is not a campaign with an end date, it is a generational responsibility.

“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 explained that the monumental task of combating drug trafficking and substance abuse could never be achieved by law enforcement alone. He lauded the indispensable roles of civil society groups and the press.

“The fight against drug trafficking and substance abuse was never going to be won by enforcement alone. It is won in the communities where NGOs quietly walk young people back from the edge of addiction,” he stated.

To the media, Marwa highlighted the courage of journalists who expose the dark underworld of drug syndicates.

He pointed that “It is won in the newsrooms where journalists chose to tell the difficult stories, the stories of trafficking routes, of rehabilitation, of families rebuilding, even when those stories were not the easiest to tell.

“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.”

Speaking on the recent operations that capture the dedication of the agency, Marwa listed the dismantling of the Amadi Simon drug cartel, the takedown of two Nigerian-Mexican methamphetamine syndicates operating within forests in Ogun and Oyo states, and the disruption of a major tramadol cartel.

He noted that the tramadol syndicate had been exploiting the Togo–Benin Republic–Nigeria corridor, a route that had for years fed a crisis of opioid abuse among youths.

“These were not simple raids,” Marwa explained. “They were the product of patient intelligence-gathering, cross-border cooperation, and officers willing to go where the criminals believed no one would follow.”

Acknowledging that many more deserving organisations exist, the chairman assured the public that the gesture was the beginning of a tradition.

He called on officers to see the honourees as a standard to reach for rather than a ceiling to stop at, and challenged partners to view the recognition as an invitation to do more.