By Alfred Koroma
“All I’m asking for, let the requisite support be given to us.”
“Then as head of the Agency, if I don’t fight, kick me out of the office, the words of Andrew Jaiah Kaikai, as the he laments the present state of the National Drug and Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) before MPs.
The Agency’s Executive Director was one of the stakeholders summoned by Parliament to deliberate on the rising intake of Kush and how the devastating illegal drug is imported and sold in Sierra Leone.
Speaking at the event, Kaikai said everything needed to combat drug abuse in the country is entailed in the strategic master plan cabinet approved in 2023. That’s in addition to the National Drug Control, Arrest and seizure regulations approved by Parliament 2021.
“The plan is there. Nothing is missing,” he said. But the government Agency primarily responsible for fighting drug abuse ‘does not even have a bicycle’ for office transportation.
The Agency has only 12 permanent staff serving the whole country, he added, saying even to get electricity at the Agency’s office, he had to recently spend about a million from his pocket.
Despite these challenges, NDLEA Executive Director affirmed his commitment to fight the rampant drug abuse, but called for the needed support.
He warned against politicizing the fight against Drug abuse, especially Kush, saying it has nothing to do with politics. It is about the survival of Sierra Leone and its future.
