The National Drug Law and Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has arrested about 30 drug peddlers between May and June at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), Lagos.
This is as the command has won the award for the Most Outstanding Command in Nigeria for four consecutive months of January to April 2021.
The traffickers were arrested at the international wing terminal and the cargo areas of the Lagos airport.
Revealing this to some journalists at the Lagos airport on Thursday, the assistant Commander-General of the agency at the Lagos airport command, Mr Ahmadu Garba said the arrests were made through intelligence gathering of its officers.
While declaring that the coming onboard of Brigadier-General Buba Marwa as the Chairman of NDLEA had further boosted the morale of officers Garba also hinted that the command was awarded the Most Outstanding Command by the NDLEA for its due diligence and the excellent performance of its officers.
Garba stated that awards for the command and the recognition of individual officers for excellent performance had further increased the morale of officers as they now compete to make arrests.
His words: “We won the award for the Most Outstanding Command in Nigeria for the months of January to April. The award is given every two months and we are still hopeful that we will win the next one for the months of May and June.
“There are so many things used by the NDLEA and I am not part of the selection team. Probably they look at the number of arrests by a command, nature of some of the cases. It is on record that officers were offered the sum of $24,500 by some of the barons within the period, but they rejected it.
“There was another case they wanted to compromise the officers. Also, a number of our cases are going for prosecution. There is a team that is in charge of this award. For the months of May and June, we have made more than 30 arrests at the airport and the cargo areas alone.
“The good thing is that the awards have gingered the officers in the command to work more. Everyone is now struggling to make arrests so that they can gain recognition and award. For each award, the officer gets a promotion and other incentives.”
He lauded Marwa for coming up with the initiative, stressing that officers are now happier than in the past.
According to him, some of the officers who had been stagnated in the past years have now been appropriately promoted, while the chairman is also working on increasing the salaries of personnel and provision of intervention funds for the agency.
YOU SHOULD NOT MISS THESE HEADLINES FROM NIGERIAN TRIBUNE
Buhari Urges MTN For Quality Service, Downward Price Review In Cost Of Data, Other Services
President Muhammadu Buhari Friday at State House Abuja urged the MTN Group to make the available top-of-the-range service to its Nigerian subscribers… NDLEA arrests 30 drug traffickers in two months at Lagos airport ; NDLEA arrests 30 drug traffickers in two months at Lagos airport ; NDLEA arrests 30 drug traffickers in two months at Lagos airport ; NDLEA arrests 30 drug traffickers in two months at Lagos airport.