The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency has said between January and September 2022, it arrested a total of 19,341 suspects involved in illicit substances, of which 28 are drug barons.

The NDLEA also intercepted and seized drugs weighing 5,451,000 kilogrammes, while the narcotics and cash recovered are worth over N420bn within the period.

Chairman/Chief Executive Officer of the NDLEA, Brigadier General Buba Marwa (retd.), made this known to the House of Representatives Committee on Drugs and Narcotics in Abuja on Thursday while defending the agency’s proposed budget in the 2023 Appropriations Bill.

Marwa also noted that the NDLEA had recorded 3,111 convictions within the nine months, with over 3,232 cases still in court, while the agency had counseled and rehabilitated 12,326 addicts

The retired general put the total size of cannabis farms so far destroyed at 714 hectares.

The NDLEA boss said, “With a drug prevalence of 14.4 per cent, nearly thrice the global average, 14.3 Nigerians are abusing drugs. This is equal to the population of Lesotho, Swaziland, Botswana, Gambia and Liberia combined.  We in the NDLEA wish to assure this esteemed committee that we are resolute and will remain upstanding in rising to  the challenge of our mandate, which is to eliminate the cultivation, processing, manufacturing, sale, trafficking and use of illicit drugs and psychotropic  substances.”

Marwa, however, lamented that drug barons and their sympathisers were going after officers of the agency, with some of them killed and injured. He, therefore, urged the committee to allocate more funds to the barracks project proposed by the agency.