Brave Dickson
The Rivers State Command of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) says it has addressed the investigation lapses usually inherited when sister security agencies arrest and transfer drug suspects to NDLEA.
The state NDLEA said before now, it used to find it difficult to get the statement of the arresting officer of drug offenders especially if the officer belonged to another security agency and his on transfer.
In a chat with our correspondent, the State NDLEA Public Relations Officer, Mr Emmanuel Ogbumgbada said its effective collaboration with other sister security agencies has addressed the investigation lapses occasioned during the transfer of drug suspects to NDLEA.
Mr Ogbumgbada said: “Well for us, I do not think we have incompetent officers. All our officers that are involved in investigations are well trained. They have also learnt the trade in terms of coming up with investigations.
“Where the lapses come is at the point when cases are transferred to us. Usually other law enforcement agencies are authorized to arrest drug offenders. After the arrest, they usually transfer the suspects to NDLEA because for now we are the only agency with the authority to prosecute drug offenders.
“It is along the line of transferring arrested drug suspects to us that things could go wrong. Sometimes, we may not even be able to get the arresting officer to come and make his statement. When you ask for him, sometimes they may tell you that the arresting officer is on transfer. So the arresting officer may end up not being able to come to court to testify. These are some of the areas we do have issues.
“But when it comes to diligent prosecution, our officers are well trained and they do that effectively. We have been reaching out to the military, police and other security agencies and we have reached a common ground on how to effectively tackle the challenge of not being able to get the testimony of arresting officer of drug suspects from our sister security agencies.
“Lapses these time around in terms of investigations are very minimal. We have really taken care of a lot of issues. But when it comes to proper investigations, our officers are well trained and of course every case file goes to very superior officers before it is minuted to the legal unit before it goes to the court. So, such lapses have always been taken care of.”
When asked on its logistics challenges, the state NDLEA image maker still expressed hope that the Rivers State Government will come to its aid as he further appealed to the Command’s stakeholders to assist with logistics to enable it nip drug trafficking and abuse in the bud.
He said: “NDLEA is an agency of the federal government and we expect all our stakeholders to put hands together to ensure that we tackle this problem of logistics we are confronted with.
“The state government is one of our stakeholders and we have always been pleading with it to come to our support. Sometime ago, the state government through the office of the deputy governor sponsored some jingles as a way to start the support.
“We believe that as time goes on, it will trickle down to logistics and other funding supports. We have also paid a courtesy call on the state governor and he made some promises which we are still hopeful that he will fulfill them in due time. We pray that the fulfilment comes early enough before further destructions as a result of increasing drug abuse and trafficking occurred.”
