…As FG suspends fresh recruitments into agency
President Muhammadu Buhari has approved the appointment of former Military Administrator of Lagos and Borno states, Brigadier-General Buba Marwa (retd), as Chairman of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA).
Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Mallam Garba Shehu, confirming the report while responding to a media enquiry on Saturday, said the President had given a nod to the appointment.
“It’s true. The President has approved General Marwa as the new NDLEA Chairman,” he said in a text message.
Before this appointment, Marwa was the Chairman of, Presidential Advisory Committee for the Elimination of Drug Abuse, PACEDA, between 2018 and December 2020, at which time he presided over the development of a blueprint on how to end drug abuse in Nigeria.
A graduate of the Nigerian Military School and the Nigerian Defence Academy (NDA), Kaduna, Marwa also has a master’s degree in Public Administration from Harvard University and another master’s degree in International Affairs from the University of Pittsburgh.
Meanwhile, the Federal government has ordered that the planned screening of 5,000 applicants seeking recruitment into the NDLEA be stopped.
This became necessary following the increased spread of coronavirus in the country.
Government said the screening slated for this month is wrongly timed in view of the alarming rate of spread of COVID-19.
Solicitor General of the Federation (SGF) and Permanent Secretary in the Federal Ministry of Justice, Mr. Dayo Apata, made this known in a statement.
A statement by the SGF reads in part: “The attention of the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice has been drawn to the fact that the NDLEA has instructed a total of 5,000 candidates to appear at the agency’s Academy, Citadel Counter-Narcotics Nigeria, (CCNN), Katton-Rikkos, Jos, Plateau State for the screening and documentation exercise between January 10 and 23, 2021.
The Attorney General urged the Solicitor General of the Federation and Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Justice, Mr. Dayo Apata, SAN to seek advice from the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 on the public health implications of such an exercise.
“Considering the above, Malami directed the Chairman of the NDLEA to hold further action on this exercise pending the receipt of clarification/advice from the Presidential Task Force,” the statement added.