The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), chairman, Brig. General Buba Marwa (Retd) has mandated staffers of the agency to undergo drug integrity test, to ascertain their status and encourage the Nigerians to also engage in it.
As gathered, Marwa along with Directors and other officers of the agency subjected themselves to the test conducted at NDLEA national headquarters in Abuja.
It was learnt that the officials were taken unawares upon resumption when the gates to the headquarters office were ordered shut and everyone asked to gather in batches at the conference hall where a team of medical doctors led by the Medical Director of Synapse Services, Dr. Vincent Udenze, a consultant in addiction psychiatry, was already assembled with their equipment for urine drug test.
Addressing newsmen after the exercise yesterday, Marwa explained that the impromptu test was necessary to ensure that charity begins at home.
“We cannot be asking others to undergo drug test without submitting ourselves for the same. Coming out clean and negative gives us the moral authority to conduct the test on others. The essence of also taking everyone by surprise and inviting external medical personnel to conduct the test is to further strengthen the validity of the exercise”, he added.
The test results already released by the medical team showed that Gen. Marwa returned negative along with the Secretary to the Agency, Barrister Shadrack Haruna and other Directors at the national headquarters of the NDLEA.
This came days after the agency recommended that Nigerians be asked to undergo the test to ascertain their level of drug consumption in the country.
