FG approves N5.16bn to construct flats for NDLEA officials

The National Drugs Laws Enforcement Agency's staff will be housed in two housing facilities made up of 192 flats with different room capacities thanks to funding that the Federal Executive Council approved on Wednesday.

The two contractors engaged for the project will need 60 weeks to finish the facility, which will be in Abuja.

At this week's Council meeting at the Presidential Villa in Abuja, which was presided over by the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (ret. ), Abubakar Malami, the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, revealed this to State House Correspondents.

Malami based the clearance on the protection and safety of the Narcotics Superintendents and Assistants of the NDLEA, who he claimed had come under attack because of their stepped-up anti-drug efforts.

He claimed that in the first and third quarters of 2022 alone, the efforts produced 18,940 arrests, N40 billion worth of hard narcotics were confiscated, and 2,904 convictions.

The achievements, he claimed, had however rendered NDLEA employees moving targets for vengeful drug lords.

The permission comes six months after Council gave the go-ahead for N580.50 million to be spent on the Agency's acquisition of four armoured vehicles in September.

On September 19, 2022, the NDLEA had just discovered cocaine valued at N194 billion in an Ikorodu warehouse. in its 33-year existence, the largest narcotics bust.

The event on Wednesday also occurs exactly one year to the day after the Council approved spending N1.07 billion to buy eye-scanning lie detectors and night-vision goggles for the NDLEA's drug fight.

It takes the agency's total number of contracts that have been granted since March 2022 to N6.81 billion.

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