Why I had surgical procedure ― Marwa

The Chairman and Chief Executive of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), Brig-Gen. Mohamed Marwa (Rtd) has explained that he had to undergo a surgical procedure recently to treat a long-standing lower back pain that was due to his sporting activities in his younger years in the Nigerian Army.

He stated this on Thursday while responding to questions from journalists after a meeting with some French experts on drug supply reduction and law enforcement in his office at the NDLEA National Headquarters, in Abuja.

When asked if he was admitted to a London hospital to undergo surgery as being rumoured, Gen. Marwa said “Indeed, I recently had surgery for long-standing lower back pain that was due to my sporting activities in my younger years in the Nigerian Army. Aside from being an avid polo player, I was an active member of the Nigerian Army athletics team in the 1970s when I participated in the long jump and triple jump events and hockey as well.”

While dismissing all other insinuations, he said he has since returned to his desk to continue his vision of strengthening the Agency and the mission of curbing drug trafficking and abuse in the country.

Speaking earlier at the meeting, the leader of the delegation and Executive Director, Africa, Smiths Detection, Mr Gabriel Pequignot said the meeting was to discuss areas of partnership.

In his response, the NDLEA boss said support from Smiths Detection “is a very important component of our work. We need the equipment to aid our task of drug supply reduction” and he assured that “NDLEA will continue in its stride towards the attainment of its ultimate goal of making Nigeria drug-free and will continue to respond strongly and appropriately to all issues of drug abuse and trafficking. While pursuing our drug supply reduction goals, we have intensified the War Against drug Abuse (WADA) campaign across the states of the federation in pursuit of our drug demand reduction goal.”

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