The President and Commander – in – Chief, 18-09-2017
State House, Abuja,
Nigeria.
Dear Sir,
THE NDLEA IS SINKING UNDER AN INCOMPETENT LEADERSHIP
We the concerned officers of the National Drug Law
Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) have watched with dismay and consternation the
extent, to which the agency has sunk since the appointment of Col. Mustapha
Abdullah (Rtd.) as Chairman / Chief Executive in January, 2016.
The appointment of Col. Abdullah (Rtd.) had rekindled
hope of a new beginning amongst officers and men of the Agency on his in 2016.
But the way things are going, Abdullah is just like an undertaker for the
burial of the Agency.
Since January, 2016, when Abdullah took over the
leadership mantle of NDLEA, he has not displayed a single shred of competence
or leadership in the management of the affairs of the Agency. The following
which are, verifiable facts, are among a litany of acts of incompetence, lack
of strategy, mismanagement and even corruption on the part of the CCE:
• The
Chairman has travelled out of the country on official assignments for about
twenty- five times since assuming duty in January 2016 .Because of the
financial state of the Agency, he borrows money most of the time to fund these
trips and whenever money trickles in from Abuja, most of it goes in to repaying
travel expenses estacodes for him and his entourage, while other pressing
matters wait endlessly.
• In the
whole of 2016, Directorates, States and Special Area Commands across the
country received the sum of N200, 000 (Two hundred thousand Naira only) as
operational/ running cost.
• So far
in 2017, the seven Directorates, States and Special Area Commands have received
operational/ running cost for only the months of January and February 2017.
• The
Agency's National Headquarters in Lagos has been in complete darkness since
August 2016 when PHCN disconnected power supply to the office complex. The
contractor supplying diesel to the Agency had even before then stopped diesel
supply over accumulated debts. As a result of this, the whole office complex
has been in darkness since August, 2016.
• The
management of the Agency is so disorganized that no one knows whether the
Agency’s Headquarters is in Abuja or Lagos. This is because, while three (3)
Directors operate from the so called new national Headquarters in Abuja, the
Chairman/ CCE operates from the erstwhile Liaison office in the Federal
Secretariat, Abuja while majority of the staff and the Agency’s registry are
still in Lagos.
• The
Chairman/ Chief Executive has not convened any management meeting with the
Directors since he came on board. He has rather held informal meetings with the
Directors on three occasions. That means no minutes of meeting were taken. For
this reason, no policy has been discussed or any decision reached at management
level since he assumed office. The implication has been no roadmap, no
direction and no single achievement since taking over office.
• The sum
of N34, 000, 000 (Thirty- four million Naira) received by the Agency for sports
was used for purposes like travel without virement.
• The sum
of N80, 000, 000 (Eighty million Naira) released to the Agency for relocation
from Abuja Airport to Kaduna Airport and back to Abuja was mismanaged.
• The
promotion of officers of various cadres which has been a nagging issue in the
Agency has become more complicated, as the last promotion examination exercise
was organized in 2013. The Chairman has turned down all entreaties to promote
officers or restructure the Agency for effectiveness.
• This
lack of tactical or strategic direction has affected the morale of the officers
so badly that it has been a sad harvest of untimely death among the rank and
file of the officers-- main cause of death is usually blood pressure related.
Under the prevailing situation, it is practically
impossible for officers especially at the headquarters to carry out any
administrative tasks as there is no light, no diesel/ petrol, no paper –
NOTHING. The situation is so bad that officers come to the office and go home
without doing anything day in day out. At the operational command level, the
situation is even worse as the lack of funding has created a conducive
environment for corruption to fester as the commands are busy rendering reports
of arrests and seizures when they have received inadequate or no funding at all
from the headquarters. The question then is how do they get the money to run
operations? Your guess is as good as mine.
Sir, at the moment, the morale of the officers is at
its lowest ebb because of the lack of a conducive environment to work, lack of
motivation and lack of hope in the future of the Agency.
We use this forum to call on the President and
Commander – in – Chief Justice to take urgent steps to save the NDLEA from
imminent collapse by taking a closer look at its affairs with a view to
effecting an immediate change in leadership in the Agency.
Signed by: JOHN
PWAJOK (ACN)
ABIMBOLA
ADENIYI (ACN)
Col. Mustapha Abdullah (Rtd.) in a mess?
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Sunday, September 24, 2017
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