We Are Concerned About Illegal Trading Of Drugs In Plateau – Mutfwang

The Governor of Plateau State, Caleb Mutfwang and the Chairman of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), Mohamed Marwa have agreed to strengthen the collaboration between the state government and the Agency.

The duo expressed their commitment towards a renewed partnership when the governor paid a courtesy visit at the Agency’s National Headquarters in Abuja.

Speaking during the visit, Marwa disclosed that a total of 6,975.6 kilograms of illicit drugs such as Cocaine, Heroin, Methamphetamine, Cannabis and Opioids were seized across the state in the last two years, leading to the arrest of 1,720 suspects and conviction of 156 while the trial of others are ongoing.

Commending the governor for his commitment to ensuring peace, security of lives and property on the Plateau, the NDLEA boss further urged Mutfwang to support the Agency with a standard rehabilitation centre, activate drug control committees at the state, local government and community levels.

He appealed to the governor to also adopt drug testing policy in schools, homes and communities across the state.

Speaking earlier, Mutfwang commended Marwa’s leadership skills in the turn around and performance of NDLEA since he assumed the chairmanship of the Agency in 2021.

He said, “We’ve followed keenly your performance and we can say that since your coming on board, NDLEA has gone about its functions with more vigour, with more determination.

“And I know that quite a lot of the people who profit from trading illicit drugs have not found it easy since your coming on board”.

On partnership, the governor said “For us on the Plateau, we’ve come because we are genuinely concerned about the impact that substance abuse and trading in illegal drugs is doing in our state and we want to seek better ways of collaboration.

“We continue to look for ways and means of trying to reduce the influence of substance abuse in our society.

“And one thing that is very critical, while we have paid a lot of attention to the demand side, to the user, we need to look again at the supply side.”