The House of Representatives Committee on Drugs and Narcotics has given assurances that it will ensure increased funding for the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA).
The committee stated this, Thursday when Chairman of NDLEA, Brigadier General Buba Marwa (rtd) appeared before it for the agency’s 2023 budget defence.
According to Chairman of the committee, Francis Agbo, NDLEA is currently understaffed amd ill-equipped, as he stressed that the agency needs adequate funding to enable them build their barracks for the safety of its staff considering the risk involved in fighting drug cartels.
Agbo further lamented that the arms being used by NDLEA need to be replaced with modern sophicated ones, noting also that when he visited the agency’s headquarters he could not find a single sniffer dog which ought not to be considering the nature of the job.
In his respomse, Marwa corroborated that adequate funding and increase of personnel to 15,000 is required for the agency to carry out its mandate effectively.
He dislosed a sniffer dog cost about 15 to 20,000 US Dollar each, adding that arms and ammunition are very critical component for the agency.
“We have worked closely with the ministry of defence. They have provided us with more arms. We need more equipment and arms to match the drug cartels”, Marwa said.
Members of the committee while commending the NDLEA boss for their fight against illicit drugs in the country charged them to contain the intake of methamphetamine, also known as Mkpuru Mmiri in the south eastern part of the country as it is causing serious threat to lives there.