President Muhammadu Buhari should appoint a competent Chairman that will redirect the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA on the path to greatness and address the lingering problem of increasing drug abuse, poor staff welfare and delayed promotion in the Agency.
The call made by Concerned Officers of the agency became imperative as the outgoing Chairman Colonel Muhammad Mustapha Abdallah’s tenure expires this week.
This is contained in a press statement by Musa Ahmed Yusuf, For Concerned Officers.
In a letter to the President by the Concerned Officers of the Agency signed by one Musa Ahmed Yusuf, the officers are happy that the tenure of Abdallah has finally ended.
They are however regretful of the painful and sad condition they have been subjected to in the last five years under Abdallah.
His tenure has been administratively suffocating and oppressively retrogressive.
Abdallah stagnated our career progression and refused to release our promotion arrears.
His nonchalant attitude toward officers welfare and operational logistics have encouraged illegal drug production, trafficking and abuse in an unimaginable scale in the history of the Agency.
We demand equality before the law and a forensic probe of his oppressive tenure. Abdallah failed to promote officers that are long over due, he failed to provide logistics to prosecute the drug war and misappropriated funds released to the agency in the past five years.
We are happy to miss him because Abdallah is one of those giving the Buhari administration a bad image.
Mr. President, give us a competent chairman based on merit. We do not care if he is from the North, South, East or West. All we need is someone that will get the agency working again.
ADMINISTRATIVE NEGLIGENCE
Unlike other chairmen who come to work daily, Abdallah comes to work once in two or three months. The last time Abdallah came to the office was in October during the board meeting.
This perpetual absenteeism has made the Agency to suffer many setbacks. An Agency saddled with so much responsibilities can not continue to be misrepresented and piloted in such a lackadaisical attitude. The precious lives of officers mean nothing to Abdallah.
Our colleagues, Samuel Abba and Tope Omopu were attacked in Hung, Adamawa State, the home town of Abdallah in October, 2020. Unfortunately, Samuel Abba was burnt to death while Tope is still in a critical state at the hospital. Abdallah did not deem it necessary to visit the command and release funds to the recuperating officer.
During the nation wide END-SARS protest, the Edo State Command headquarters in Benin City was destroyed.
Similarly, Orlu Command in Imo State and Nnewi Command in Anambra State were destroyed during the protest. Still, Abdallah is yet to visit these Commands to commiserate with the officers and make arrangements for them to get another accommodation in order to commence operation.
The sad memories of how Abdallah gave the paltry sum of fifty thousand naira only to the families of three officers, Onwumere Nicholas, Peter Ebun and Abdulrahman Musa shot dead by unknown gun men in Kogi State on October 13, 2017 is still a bitter pill in our mouths. The families of late officers are waiting hopelessly for Abdallah to pay the entitlement of the fallen heroes. Enough is enough.
NON-PROMOTION OF OFFICERS
Abdallah refused to release our promotion arrears. This has dampened our morale. The most painful aspect is the fact that our colleagues that retired in the last five years left service with lower ranks than they are entitled to because of Abdallah’s administrative callousness. This injustice is demoralizing to the entire workforce.
CORRUPTION
Since 2016 that Abdallah took over, he stopped the payment of monthly running cost to commanders. This has continued all through his tenure. The monthly allocation of the Agency of about 48 million naira is used to service Abdallah’s personal interest. This has amounted to the sum of 2.8 billion in the past five years. How are the commands meeting their needs and how do you define corruption? Abdallah also sold the official quarters for the chairman of the Agency located at George Street Ikoyi, Lagos.
He also allowed a telecommunication Service provider to install a telecom station at the once vibrant Ikoyi office that is now a shadow of itself. The impunity of Abdallah must not go unpunished.
UN DRUG ABUSE REPORT
A national survey has confirmed a massive scale of Nigeria”s drug problem with no effort by Abdallah to reverse the ugly trend.

According to the report, in 2017 just one year after Abdallah took over office, nearly 15% of the adult population in Nigeria (around 14.3 million people) reported a “considerable level” of use of psychoactive drug substances. This is a rate much higher than the 2016 global average of 5.6% among adults.
The survey was led by Nigeria’s National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) and the Center for Research and Information on Substance Abuse with technical support from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and funding from the European Union. Our airports, seaports and land borders are becoming increasingly porous by the day as Abdallah remains unperturbed.
UNENDING RECRUITMENT
We demand a complete investigation into the unending recruitment exercise by Abdallah even when money has been released to him since 2019. Non of the procedures have followed due process. The entire exercise must be conducted by a competent leader. This will ensure that Nigerians have a level playing ground in serving their country.
THE WAY FORWARD
We want a competent chairman appointed to correct the many mistakes of Abdallah and take the agency to greater heights following the expiration of Abdallah’s tenure.
We also demand the investigation and prosecution of Abdallah and the revocation of the Chairman’s official quarters in Ikoyi that he sold.
We want proper placement and harmonization of staff to address the promotion arrears.
Let the proper placement include our colleagues that retired in the past five years to correct the injustice inflicted on them by Abdallah.
Address the problem of lack of logistics and immediately release monthly running cost to commanders.