Group Seeks Integration Of Drug Control Into Security Architecture

A group under the auspices of Society for Drug Abuse Enlightenment and Control (SODAEC) has called for the integration of drug control into state-level security architectures.

The group also sought the investigation and inquiry into the withholding of capital funds of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) in 2025 as disclosed by the National Assembly Joint Committee on Drugs and Narcotics.

The group said the disclosure was not merely a budgetary oversight but a calculated abandonment of Nigeria’s most critical line of defense against the twin plagues of narcotics and insecurity.

Executive Director, Society for Drug Abuse Enlightenment and Control (SODAEC), Barrister Ahmad Musa Umar in a statement urged the Federal Government to embark on urgent recruitment drive to triple the current staff strength to meet global policing ratios.

The statement said, “The Society for Drug Abuse Enlightenment and Control (SODAEC) issues this emergency declaration to express our profound shock and unmitigated outrage following the revelations from the National Assembly Joint Committee on Drugs and Narcotics.

“While other agencies focus on specific niches of crime, the NDLEA protects the security, economic, and sociopolitical interests of Nigeria simultaneously. Drug money fuels the banditry and terrorism.

“By funding the NDLEA, the government strikes at the very root of the narco-insecurity tree. If the NDLEA is the shield against 50% of our national insecurity, why is it treated as a peripheral parastatal? It is a travesty that this agency receives more tangible support from the UNODC and international partners than from the very government it serves.”

The statement added, “SODAEC demands that the NDLEA be placed on First-Line Charge. The agency must be shielded from the whims of annual budgetary volatility.”