NDLEA BOSS BECOMES IDEC PRESIDENT

Lagos

The Chairman/Chief Executive of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency
(NDLEA), Alhaji Bello Lafiaji, has been elected President of the European
Working Group of the International Drug Enforcement Conference (IDEC).

His election took place at a conference of the organisation at Lima, Peru,
recently. He had the Secretary of the IDEC two years ago.

A total of 400 delegates, representing 70 countries were at the conference.
Prior to the election, there was an overwhelming vote of confidence on the
Nigerian's tenure as secretary of the organisation. He was consequently
elected unanimously by participating countries as president.

A statement signed by NDLEA Assistant Director, Public Affairs, Jonah
Ache-ma, stated that the Admini-strator of the United States Drug
Enforcement Admin-istration (USDEA) and the United States Secretary of
State, representative of the President of America, Geo-ge Bush, at the
meeting, tasked Lafiaji to further ensure positive strides in global drug
control, especially in the area of exchange of intelligence and
international development.

This, they added, has to do with the development and application of
effective anti-money laundering, assets forfeiture and development of new
measures towards control of production and distribution of synthetic drugs
and precursor chemicals.

Achema stated that Lafiaji, being the first African to be appointed into
the office, was saddled with the responsibility of mobilising countries and
accepting their membership of the organisation, which was aimed at the
establishment of a verile counter-narcotic intelligence database and
exchange of valuable information among member countries.

He said experts were of the view that the NDLEA boss' appointment was a
demonstration of the favou-rable perception of the international community
of Nigeria and that Lafiaji's ascendancy to the presidency of the esteem
global family of drug control was a further testimony of the positive
international accreditation of Nigeria's anti-drug efforts by the present
administration of Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, efficiently piloted by the
leadership of the NDLEA.

In appreciation of his appointment, Lafiaji, who said he was humbled by the
appointment, assured the international community of Nigeria's commitment to
the drug war as well as his renewed offensive in the fight against hard
drugs, promising to see to the enlistment of more countries into the
organisation.

"The fight against hard drugs is not a country affair. This is because if
one country succeeds and neighbouring countries still remain trafficking
hubs, then the country may still have to sleep with one eye open", Lafiaji
stated.