Marwa, NDLEA directors undergo ‘impromptu’ drug test

Buba Marwa, chairman of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), and other top officials of the agency have undergone an “impromptu drug integrity test”.

A team of doctors, led by Vincent Udenze, medical director of Synapse Services, were at the agency’s headquarters in Abuja, on Monday to conduct the drug test.

According to a statement by Femi Babafemi, NDLEA spokesman, the officials were subjected to the test upon resumption of work on Monday.

The gates of the headquarters were said to have been shut during the exercise, while everyone was asked to gather in batches at the conference hall for the test.

Babafemi noted that the test results released so far by the medical team showed that Marwa; Shadrack Haruna, NDLEA secretary, and other directors at the agency’s headquarters were negative.

Speaking before the exercise started, the NDLEA chairman said the impromptu test was necessary to show that the agency is leading by example.

“We cannot be asking others to undergo drug tests without submitting ourselves for the same. Coming out clean and negative gives us the moral authority to conduct the test on others,” he said.

“The essence of also taking everyone by surprise and inviting external medical personnel to conduct the test is to further strengthen the validity of the exercise.”

The exercise comes months after Marwa proposed that students of tertiary institutions, corps members, workers, security agencies, and government appointees undergo drug tests.