TheCable

Buba Marwa, chairman of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), says officers of the agency arrested some politicians in possession of illicit drugs.

Marwa said this on Sunday when he featured on Channels Television’s ‘Hard Copy’.

The chairman said he was “somewhat disappointed” that the drive to have public officers undergo drug-tests before they assume office did not go through.

“But the idea is not original. We are promoting what is going on already in Kano state. In kano state, all politicians under the governor’s party, aspiring for an office, must first demonstrate in the screening process that they are drug negative and I’m in full support of that,” he said.

“We have arrested politicians who either are holding political office or have retired. Recently one of them was jailed in Lagos, he was trying to smuggle 1kg, maybe to use it to run for office.

“As you know, the cartels also participate in political institutions, they actually fund candidates into the various levels so that the correct laws (that favour them) are enacted.”

Speaking on the rehabilitation of drug users, the NDLEA chief said there is a dearth of rehab centres “and there are thousands if not millions of drug users who need help but there’s no where to go. And so they snuck back into their bedrooms and continue to take drugs”.

“Right now we have just 11 model rehab centres in the country which is very low. The Presidential Advisory Committee on Elimination of Drug Abuse (PACEDA) recommended that there should be about three centres per state looking at the prevalence and the federal government already through the ministry of health, has agreed to build one more rehab centre in every state,” he said.