By Ikugbadi Oluwasegun
The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA, and the National Crime Agency of the United Kingdom have recommitted to taking battles to the doorsteps of drug cartels as part of efforts to stamp out serious organized crimes in Nigeria and the UK.
The fresh commitment was the highlight of remarks by Brig. Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa (Retd) the Chairman/Chief Executive Officer of NDLEA, and David Cater, Regional Manager, West Africa, NCA at the signing of a renewed Memorandum of Understanding, MoU between the two agencies at the NDLEA headquarters in Abuja on Tuesday 4th July.
According to Marwa, this renewed MoU will definitely and inevitably propel High Intelligence Driven Operational Tentacles that will seek out the most complex organised criminal networks, no matter their hiding place to face the wrath of the Law. He expressed great expectations in the NCAs upcoming project with the Agencys rebranded Criminal Intelligence Task Force (CITF), stating that I look forward, with great optimism, to the requisite specialist capabilities this project will provide to the CITF officials to target and disrupt drug trafficking cartels in our country, the West Africa sub-region and beyond.
Our overwhelming gratitude goes to the Government of the United Kingdom for its continued technical support to the Agency. Also worthy of appreciation is the commendable efforts of the dedicated UK NCA personnel which no doubt, has inspired the Agencys CITF officials with deepened enthusiasm to tackle Serious Organized Crimes frontally.
While acknowledging that serious organised crime is a dynamic and complex phenomenon that does not recognise borders thereby posing grave threat to lives and properties in both countries, the NDLEA boss said It is therefore imperative to aggressively seek proactive ways of managing intelligence and enhancing capabilities for disrupting transnational organised crime syndicates, thereby justifying the need to sustain the renewal of this memorandum of understanding which is another significant milestone in our collaborative efforts to combat organised criminal groups.”
In his remarks at the brief ceremony, David Cater said renewing the MoU comes with great satisfaction and significant to the good work of both NDLEA and NCA. He said the renewed MoU will enable us to take the battle to the enemies, that is, the cartels.
He expressed appreciation to the leadership of NDLEA for the support and confidence reposed in the partnership, while assuring that the ongoing project will continue to support the Agency to succeed in its assignments.