By Araba Kayode
Thus, the National Assembly Joint Committee on Drugs and Narcotics on Thursday raised serious concerns over the non-release of capital funds to the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) in 2025, calling for urgent financial intervention to strengthen the agency’s operations amid rising cases of drug abuse nationwide.
After, scrutinizing the agency’s 2026 budget proposal, the lawmakers identified significant shortfalls and decried what they described as persistently low appropriations to an institution central to Nigeria’s security architecture.
However, the committee, chaired by Senator Ibrahim Hassan Dankwambo and co-chaired Hon. Abass Aboworin Adigun, reviewed the NDLEA’s 2025 budget performance following the presentation by the agency’s Secretary, Shadrach Haruna.
Moreso, members of the committee subsequently held a closed-door session to deliberate on critical operational and funding challenges. Addressing journalists afterwards, Hon. Adigun said discussions focused on repositioning the NDLEA as a priority national security institution.
Furthermore , he lamented that despite the devastating impact of drug abuse on Nigerian youths and its direct links to insecurity, the agency remains grossly underfunded.
He said this agency ought to be among the top five institutions that should receive serious national attention, yet it is not being prioritized Hon Adigun noted that 50 per cent of the insecurity in our country is linked to drug abuse. If we fail to act decisively now, in the next 10 years the crisis could spiral out of control.
