The Nigerian Drug Law and Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) says it has arrested citizens of Chad and Niger Republics who were in the business of supplying drugs to Boko Haram/Islamic State in West Africa Province (ISWAP) terrorists and bandits wrecking violence in Nigeria.
NDLEA Chairman, Brigadier General Buba Marwa (rtd), said in Abuja on Thursday when he and his team visited the Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed that these drug suppliers were arrested last week in Taraba and Niger States.
General Marwa said the agency had successfully arrested 2,175 drug traffickers, seized 2,050,765.33 kilograms of illicit drugs as well as seized cash and drug worth N75bin.
He said 15 million Nigerians between the ages of 15 and 60 were using drugs, adding that 25 percent of them were females.
He said visit was to solicit the ministry’s support for media coverage by the Nigerian Television Authority and Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria in agency’s fight against drug abuse.
Responding, the minister said, “The kind of vicious banditry and kidnapping for ransom that our country has witnessed in recent times cannot be totally separated from illicit drug use and their effects on users who take to crime.”
