Honours 274 personnel, 19 NGOs, Vanguard and other media platforms at 12th awards ceremony
By Kingsley Omonobi
The Chairman/Chief Executive Officer of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), Brig. Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa (retd.), has charged officers and personnel of the agency to remain resilient, describing the fight against illicit drugs as a generational responsibility.
Marwa gave the charge on Thursday, August 13, 2026, at the 12th Chairman/Chief Executive Officer’s Commendations and Awards ceremony held at the agency’s national headquarters in Abuja.
The ceremony recognised 274 personnel for outstanding performance, as well as 18 best-performing commands and 19 non-governmental organisations and media organisations for their contributions to the campaign against drug abuse in Nigeria.
Marwa said the fight against illicit drugs would remain a continuous challenge requiring sustained commitment from the agency and its partners.
According to him, “The war against illicit drugs is not a campaign with an end date. It is a generational responsibility. For every cartel we dismantle, intelligence tells us another will attempt to rise. For every corridor we shut down, traffickers will search for another route.”
He said the fight against drug trafficking could not be won through enforcement alone, stressing the importance of the contributions of civil society organisations and the media.
He noted that NGOs worked within communities to help young people overcome substance abuse, while journalists continued to highlight issues surrounding drug trafficking, rehabilitation and recovery.
Marwa said the agency recognised that many other deserving organisations and media platforms across the country were not included among this year’s honourees.
He described the awards as “the beginning of a tradition, not a closed chapter,” adding that subsequent editions would recognise more individuals and organisations contributing to the fight against drug abuse.
“The fight against drug trafficking and substance abuse was never going to be won by enforcement alone. It is won in the communities where NGOs quietly walk young people back from the edge of addiction.
“It is won in the newsrooms where journalists chose to tell the difficult stories, the stories of trafficking routes, of rehabilitation, of families rebuilding, even when those stories were not the easiest to tell.
“Our partners in civil society and the media have been the multiplier effect on everything this agency does. You have taken our message into homes, schools and communities that our uniforms alone could never reach,” he said.
Marwa also highlighted recent operations which, according to him, demonstrated the agency’s operational capabilities. They included the dismantling of the Amadi Simon drug cartel, the takedown of two Nigerian-Mexican methamphetamine cartels operating in forests in Ogun and Oyo states, and the disruption of a tramadol cartel operating along the Togo-Benin Republic-Nigeria corridor.
He said the operations were the result of sustained intelligence gathering, cross-border cooperation and the commitment of NDLEA personnel.
“These were not simple raids. They were the product of patient intelligence-gathering, cross-border cooperation, and officers willing to go where the criminals believed no one would follow,” Marwa said.
He urged NDLEA personnel to regard the award recipients as examples to emulate, rather than as a limit to their own achievements.
He also encouraged civil society organisations and media partners to see the recognition as an invitation to deepen their contributions to the campaign against drug abuse.
Among the media organisations honoured was Vanguard Newspapers, with its correspondent, Kingsley Omonobi, receiving the Chairman’s Commendation Award.
Marwa congratulated all the award recipients and commended their families for their support, while thanking Nigerians for their continued confidence in the agency.
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