Buhari sacks NDLEA Chairman, Abdallah

President Muhamma­du Buhari has ap­proved the removal of the Chairman of the National Drug Law En­forcement Agency (NDLEA), Col. Muhammad Mustapha Abdallah (rtd).

Abdallah was appointed on Jan­uary 12, 2016 by the former Secretary to Government of the Federation (SGF), Engr. Babachir Lawal, via a let­ter. However, there is disquiet in the para-military agency as the sacked chairman reportedly em­barked on a massive recruit­ment barely 24 hours after he got a letter to handover.

In another letter, dated January 7, 2021 and signed by the Secretary to the Federal Government, Boss Musta­pha, Abdallah was mandated to handover to the Secretary of the agency, Shadrach Haruna, on or before Janu­ary 10, 2021 (today).

It was gathered that Haruna, who was reportedly in the United Kingdom during the notice, had to cut short his trip as he hurried­ly returned to Nigeria at the weekend.

The ‘concerned of­ficers’ of the NDLEA, who kicked against the recruit­ment exercise, equally com­mended President Buhari for his swift intervention in sacking Col. Abdallah follow­ing his dismal performance in the last five years. In a letter addressed to the President at the weekend, the officers condemned the hasty recruitment and called for its cancellation.

The officers are also ac­cusing Abdallah of distort­ing the seniority list in the agency. According to the aggrieved officers, “It is for the above and many other shortcomings that we are calling for a probe of Abdallah and the appoint­ment of a competent leader to lead the agency on the path of glory; we cannot afford the costly price of another wast­ed five years”.

The concerned officers had earlier called on the President to investigate and prosecute Abdallah for the alleged diversion of N2.8 bil­lion commanders’ monthly allowances and the revoca­tion of the sale of the Chair­man’s official quarters in Ikoyi, which they alleged that he sold.

In a letter addressed to the president by the concerned officers of the agency, signed by one Musa Ahmed Yusuf, the of­ficers accused the outgoing NDLEA boss of diverting N2.8 billion monthly oper­ational allowances for com­manders. The petition also said a nation­al survey confirmed a mas­sive scale of Nigeria’s drug problem with no effort by Abdallah to reverse the ugly trend.

The petition further called for the appointment of “a competent chairman ap­pointed to correct the many mistakes of Abdallah and take the agency to greater heights following the expi­ration of Abdallah’s tenure.

In the meantime, the Attorney-General of the Federation, (AGF) and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami (SAN), has ordered the NDLEA, to suspend its planned screening and docu­mentation exercise for 5,000 new recruits.

While acknowledging that the exercise was long over­due and necessary for the actualisation of the agency’s mandate, Malami said the re­cruitment should be kept on hold, pending the receipt of clarification/advice from the Presidential Task Force. Abdallah, however, refused to confirm or deny if he got a letter to handover from the presidency, as he refused to respond to phone calls and short messages sent to his mobile number as at press time.