The Federal Executive Council (FEC), has approved four armoured vehicles for use by the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA, in strengthening the organization in fighting the war against illicit drug trafficking in Nigeria.
The FEC, which was presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari, on Wednesday approved the sum of N580.5 million for the purchase of the four armoured vehicles.
The Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, while briefing the State House Correspondents at the end of the meeting said, the decision to procure the armoured vehicles was taken to encourage and safeguard the lives of NDLEA personnel.
He disçlosed that the operatives of the Agency had been working very hard with lots of results to show for their efforts.
“Today, a memo was presented by the office of the Attorney General of the Federation, that is the Federal Ministry of Justice, which was relating to a parastatal under the supervision of the office of the Attorney General, the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA).
“The purpose of the memo was to seek approval of the council for the award of contract for the supply of four customised armoured security vehicles of 14 seater model for the NDLEA and the contract sum is N580,500,000 only inclusive of 7.5 percent value added tax with a delivery period of 16 weeks
“It is common knowledge that of recent the NDLEA has been repositioned and arising from the support both in terms of our capacity building, hardware and associated things, they have been recording an extra-ordinary or unprecedented success.
“Recently they seized about 1.8 tons of cocaine having a market value of about N194 billion. So, with all these successes recorded it is only logical that the criminals and their syndicate are now devising means inclusive of attacks on NDLEA personnel and it is with that in mind that the memo was presented for the procurement of such vehicles for the NDLEA and the council approved.” He said.
Malami explained that Nigerian government appreciated the effort of the Agency adding that the Federal government was very happy with the successes being recorded by the NDLEA whereby, between January and July 2022, the agency arrested 18,940 suspects with 2,904 convictions.