NDLEA seized over 30 tonnes of illicit medicine in Edo in 2025 – Marwa

Brigadier-General Buba Marwa, retd, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the company, disclosed this on Wednesday throughout a courtesy go to to the Oba of Benin at his palace in Benin City.

Marwa mentioned he was within the state on an evaluation go to to the NDLEA Edo State Command and to deal with the Regimental Sergeant Majors Convention of the Nigerian Army.

The retired military common, who described drug abuse as one of many main social issues in Nigeria, mentioned greater than 15 million Nigerians abuse medicine.

“And the great Benin Kingdom is not exempted from this scourge because it does not discriminate. It is everywhere,” he mentioned.

He solicited the help of conventional rulers within the combat towards drug abuse and cultivation, stressing that the company couldn’t win the battle alone.

“It is a whole-of-society approach. We need the traditional institution, the church, CSOs, government, media, because all hands must be on deck. But most importantly, the traditional institution.

“There is not any single establishment in Nigeria as we speak that has the respect that the standard establishment has. But that is an task that we can’t do alone.

“Whoever you are in Nigeria, you have your own traditional ruler that you must go and seek his blessing and his help. And that is why we wish to first of all acknowledge the support that Your Royal Majesty has been giving on drug control and all the other maladies in our society.

“Against kidnapping, towards, sadly, human trafficking, which I realized Your Majesty gave a curse, and it labored as a result of that has now began to come back down right here.

“We seek Your Royal Blessings and support throughout this kingdom for the communities to stay away from drug trafficking and drug trading,” he added.

Marwa additionally disclosed that the company had launched a brand new initiative aimed toward tackling hashish cultivation by persuading farmers concerned within the illicit commerce to embrace different crops.

He mentioned the initiative, referred to as different growth, concerned participating communities cultivating hashish and inspiring them to change to professional agricultural merchandise.

“So we’ve introduced alternative development as a strategy in which we are appealing and persuading the growers of cannabis to desist from illicit cropping and plant cassava, yam, corn, licit substances.

“The farmers have confided in us that they’re grateful for this initiative as a result of although there may be more cash in hashish than these licit substances, at the very least they may have peace of thoughts once they domesticate as a result of although the opposite one provides them cash, they’re perpetually not comfy of their houses with their households for concern of NDLEA.

“If a cockroach moves or a rat in their house, they all jump out and start looking for a way to escape.

“So that is the brand new technique. We are the primary in Africa with this technique. The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime has welcomed it. The Federal Government of Nigeria has welcomed it as a part of the Renewed Hope Agenda for illicit croppers to maneuver away from crime to licit companies.

“The Federal Government supports, NDLEA supports, and the state government supports with inputs and other ways in the community to make their livelihoods more sustainable, fixing the roads, the schools, the clinics, water supply.

“We have began this different growth as a pilot mission in Ondo State within the three communities supported by the Federal Government, and the governor of Ondo himself was half and parcel of the launch,” he acknowledged.

He mentioned the initiative would quickly be launched in Edo State.

Responding, the Oba of Benin, Oba Ewuare II, counseled the NDLEA for its efforts within the combat towards illicit medicine and substances within the nation.

The monarch mentioned he would personally ahead a proposal to the NDLEA chairman on methods to deal with the drug abuse scourge within the nation.