The Federal Executive Council in Nigeria has approved the sum of N5 billion for the construction of residential accommodation for officers and men of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA).
Justice minister, Abubakar Malami, disclosed this to State House Correspondents at the end of Wednesday’s meeting of the Council chaired by President Muhammadu Buhari.
The minister said the move was necessary to further secure the lives and property of personnel of the agency, whom he said have been making tremendous success in the fight against narcotics, according to the Voice of Nigeria.
He said: “As you are aware, there has been renewed and sustained onslaught by the NDLEA against drug cartels and barons. Within the three quarters of 2023, about 18, 940 arrests were effected by the NDLEA and indeed drugs worth an estimated value of over N40 billion were confiscated.
“The successes that were recorded unfortunately translated to unprecedented threats and attacks on personnel; the officers, men and other ranks of the agency. Thus, the need has arisen for the Nigerian government to consider the possibility of taking security measures that will now provide the desired protection to officers and men of the NDLEA.”
He further explained that the Council gave approval for the construction of two categories of barracks to have 192 flats.
“Accordingly, two contracts were awarded to two different contractors. The first one is for the construction of barracks comprising a total 92 units of 3-bedroom semidetached flats for Narcotics Superintendents and Narcotics Assistant Superintendents at the cost of N2, 267, 785, 450.83.
“The second contract was in the sum of N2, 889, 480, 320. 55 for the construction of barracks comprising a total 100 units of 3- and 2-bedroom semidetached flats for Narcotics Superintendents and Narcotics Agents,” he said.
According to Malami, the contracts have a completion period of 60 weeks.
