Marwa gave the charge in Igumale, Ado local council area and Otukpo in Benue State on Sunday January 22 and Monday January 23, 2023 respectively. The NDLEA boss was in Igumale to perform the ground-breaking ceremony of the Agency’s Area Command office in the community.
Speaking at the palace of the community’s monarch, Chief Joseph Oche Ikor, Marwa urged the traditional ruler to see the siting of an NDLEA office in his domain as a call to mobilise his people to reject substance abuse and support ongoing efforts to eliminate access to illicit drugs wreaking havocs in families and communities.
In his remarks at the foundation laying ceremony and the commissioning of a 20-kilometre road facilitated by the member representing Ado-Ogbadigbo-Okpokwu Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives, who is the Chairman, House Committee on Narcotic Drugs, Francis Agbo, Marwa said “both developments are signs of the importance of this community and council to Nigeria’s welfare and also a testament that communities in this corner of the country are not left out of the dividends of democracy by its leaders.”
Admonishing the community, Marwa said “I will also want to use this opportunity to appeal to the good people of this constituency to do their utmost to ensure we keep our communities clean of illicit drugs. Keeping Nigeria safe from dangerous substances is the mandate of NDLEA; the mandate, however, cannot be attained without the contribution of Nigerians. We have created a vehicle to facilitate the participation of the citizenry, which is the War Against Drug Abuse (WADA) campaign. It is a social advocacy, which we are going to taking to every community in this country. We started in 2021 and in the past two years, we have succeeded in getting WADA to the doorsteps of our people at the grassroots.
“As we intensify the campaign this year, I enjoin every one of you to be a part of this platform for social action, where all well-meaning Nigerians become stakeholders in the concerted effort to safeguard the safety and sanity of our society against the drug scourge.”
Speaking during a WADA advocacy visit to the Ochi’Idoma of Idoma land, Agabaidu Elaigwu Odogbo Obagaji John, Marwa said traditional rulers as leaders of their people must embrace the campaign against the drug scourge in the interest of the youths, families and the security of their communities and the country as a whole.
In their responses, the monarchs promised to support the agency to succeed in its given task while also assuring that they would work with NDLEA to rid their domains of illicit drugs.
