The Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, SAN, disclosed on Tuesday that the federal government has approved the recruitment of 5000 staff in the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA, this year, 2016 in addition to 10,000 in 2017.
Malami was speaking at the ECOWAS ministers’ meeting in Abuja where he noted that there were plans by the federal government to improve the capacity of the agency in relation to fighting crimes in the region.
He urged ministers of member countries to follow the new ECOWAS Regional Drug Action Plan, for the year 2016-2020, pointing out that it provides a roadmap and working document for the ECOWAS drug control team.
The ECOWAS director in charge of Drug Control, Sintiki Ugbe, Commended Nigeria’s effort to tackle drug trafficking at the national level, saying that the government has shown political commitment by approving the recruitment of workers to widen the NDLEA capacity and further develop a national drug control master plan.
Ugbe said, “We see and applaud that kind of political commitment in the region. We also want to see the translation of political commitment into real actions.”
