The Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA, Brig. Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa (retd) said the agency has made 18,940 arrests in the last two years.

Marwa who has been in office since January 2021, spoke in Yola, the Adamawa State capital while reviewing his almost two years in charge of NDLEA, adding that of the arrested suspects, 3,324 have been jailed.

Marwa who received an honorary award at the event also disclosed that 5.4 million kilograms of illicit drugs were seized in the time under the review.

“I would like to appeal to parents to stand up as parents and play the correct role of parenting for our children,” he advised, announcing that by next year the agency will provide inexpensive drug testing kits so that parents who have doubts about their children can buy these kits and test their children.

He said it was vital so that parents of children found to have drug use problems can quickly seek help.

Marwa made his remarks during the presentation of an award of excellence to him by the Adamawa Honors Society on Wednesday in Yola.

Accepting the award, Marwa said the drug scourge is prevalent among youths, and that drug abuse promotes criminalities.

“The Boko Haram insurgents, terrorists, bandits, kidnappers; all of these criminals depend on drugs, and it is for these reasons that NDLEA has gone to make seizures, arrests, and [followed] due legal processes to deny access and availability of drugs across the length and breadth of the country,” he said.