Deprived NDLEA Officers Seek Chairman’s Probe, Removal Over Alleged Multiple Illegal Acts

The Alleged Discrepancy Posting List of The Agency’s Commanders

Deprived NDLEA Officers Seek Chairman’s Probe, Removal Over Alleged Multiple Illegal Acts

Some aggrieved officers and operatives of the National Drug Laws Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) have called for the investigation and removal of Colonel Muhammed Abdallah (retd) as the agency’s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, over alleged ineptitude acts, nepotism, tribalism, cross misconduct, financial misappropriation and others.

The officers also called on the Federal government and the leadership of the National Assembly, to amend the Agency’s Act, by separating the office of Chairman of the Board from that Accounting Officer and Chief Executive.

The deprived Officers under the auspices of ‘Concerned Officers’ with their leader named Jibrin Jiya, said the called for Colonel Abdullah’s investigation and removal, if found culpable of the alleged allegations, became imperative as the purpose of establishing the agency is not longer achievable and realistic under his leadership.

The Concerned Officers in their petition dated June 8, 2020, to President Muhammadu Buhari and the National Assembly leadership, captioned ‘Anybody but …Col. Muhammad Abdullah, as Chairman/Chief Executive NDLEA’, which a copy was made available to this medium, stated that they never imaging that someone without military background could run the agency better than the way Col. Abdallah does.

The officers’ petition reads in part: “dear Mr. President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, President Muhammad Buhari, I am writing to you this petition with heavy heart because I never imagined that a man like Muhammad Abdullah, the Chairman/Chief Executive of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency can be appointed to such a sensitive position under your watch as the President of this great country. 

“Sir, Mr. Muhammad Abdallah who is in the last lap of his five (5) year tenure has taken impunity to unimaginable height since he assumed office sometime in January, 2016. Your Excellence, please permit me to take the issues concerning the disastrous tenure of Muhammad Abdallah as the Chairman of NDLEA one after the other. 

“On Administrative Styles, Sir, it will interest you to know that Mr. Abdallah Mohammad has stopped coming to the office since the outbreak of Covid-19 pandemic. Before the out break of Covid-19, he had the penchant of travelling abroad at every opportunity at the expense of paying attention to the overwhelming problems of the Agency. This created a void and a dip hole in the pocket of the Agency as the recurrent expenditure of the Agency was used to finance Mr. Abdallah’s insatiable hunger for overseas trips. 

“Sir, it will interest you to know that the day to day running of the Agency has been suffering as a result of Mr. Abdallah’s nonchalant attitude towards his Schedule to the extent that both internal and external correspondences meant for his attention are left unattended to, to the extent that heaps of files are a common sight in his office. 

“Sir, the lackluster attitude of Mr. Abdallah towards his office has strained the relationship between the Agency and her foreign partners/stakeholders to the extent that most of them have withdrawn both technical and financial support the Agency had hitherto enjoyed before his appointment. The Agency is witnessing an era of a dictatorship in Abdallah’s leadership where management meetings are no longer held which has left other Management team of the Agency as mere puppets who have no say in me day to day running of the Agency. The implication of this is that the Agency is going down to the extent that an average officer of the Agency have given up and no longer aspire to rise to be a part of the management team haying experienced how Directors of the Agency are being treated by Mr. Abdallah particularly the younger ones like myself and my course mates who are less than ten (10) years in the Agency. 

“Sir, another area of serious concern under the administration of Mr. Abdallah, is the fact that he has consistently refused to give imprests to the Directors and the Commanders for the running of their various Directorates and Commands. As a result, these Commanders have no choice than to resort to self help by compromising and engaging in arrest and release of drug dealers/peddlers in order to raise money for the running of their Commands and thereby compromising the security of lives and property of the Nigerian Citizens and foreigners inhabiting in our country. 

On PROMOTION OF OFFICERS AND MEN, ” Sir, it will interest you to know that NDLEA Officers are dying in silence as a result of Mr. Abdallah’s inability to see through a promotion exercise he started since February/March 2019. This is just the only promotion exercise he has carried out since his appointment in 2015. Whereas some very senior officers are awaiting their promotions haying spent over eight (8) to nine (9) years in one rank, those he managed to promote are yet to start enjoying the financial benefit. This is because Mr. Abdullah refused to conclude the entire promotion of all cadres of officers in the Agency to enable the computation of the cost implementation of the entire promotion which is required by the budget office for the purpose of budgetary previsions by the National Assembly. 

“This reprehensible action of Mr. Abdallah has not only made these officers who have served this country by putting their lives on the line in pursuit of dangerous drugs criminals over the years to have a rethink on the desirability or otherwise of continuing taking the risk without any form of encouragement from Mr. Abdallah which has dampened their morale. 

“Sir, we are appealing to you to prevail on Mr. Abdallah to conclude our promotion exercise to enable us enjoy our hard earned money having put our lives in danger over these years in the service of our fatherland. 
On Alleged Lopsided Appointments: “Mr. President Sir, it is also unbelievable that Mr. Abdallah is so insensitive to the multi-ethnic and sectional composition of Nigeria in his consideration of appointments into various Command positions in the Agency. 

“Please sir, see below for the distribution of the positions of Directors in the Six (6) geopolitical Zones: Northeast three directors; Northwest; Northcentral; Southwest; South south have two directors each, while Southeast has only one director.

“Sir, also see the list for the appointment of Commanders in Nine Special Area Command of the Agency, while Northeast has five Commanders, both Northwest and South south have two Commanders each and other zones have none

“Sir, what could be more brazen than the above appointments by Mr. Abdallah which is totally against the spirit and letters of the 1999 constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria which on the need for Federal Character in appointments. 

“Mr. Abdallah who hails from the North East precisely Adamawa State, has shown that he has no regard for the Nigerian Constitution and indeed Nigerians generally other than those Nigerians from the same geopolitical zone he came from. It is even most disheartening when you consider the fact that most of these Commanders from his zone are not even qualified by rank to occupy those positions as they are mostly Assistant Commanders of Narcotics (ACN) and not even substantive Commanders of narcotics (CN) which is the right rank to occupy such positions. 

“What Abdallah has done is akin to appointing a Lt. Colonel as a G-O-C in the Military or an Assistant Commissioner of Police as a Commissioner of police in charge of a State or a special command in the Nigerian Police or appointing an Assistant Comptroller of Customs to a Command where a Substantive Comptroller should be taking charge in the Nigeria Customs. This is unacceptable and total disregard to regimentation by Mr. Abdallah.
On Age Cheating and Transfer of Service Manipulation; ” Sir, another scandalous corruption that is happening under the watch of Mr. Abdallah as the Chairman of NDLEA that should be locked into by an independent investigative body in the area of alteration of age and manipulation of transfer of service record that is wide spread among the officers of the Agency. 

“Most of the officers and men of the Agency who ought to have retired are still in service having tempered with their original record of services by reducing their age by many years against the original age they came with as at the time they joined the service. 

“Sir, these atrocities happened mainly when IPPIs (Integrated Personal Payroll Information System) was introduced to the Agency in 2013 by the Federal Government. Those officers that are criminally minded took advantage and fed the IPPIS platform With false age entirely different from their original 398 they were enlisted into the service and by so domg elongated their service years with additional number of years. 

“The actions of these dishonest officers negates the Objectives and intention of introduction of IPPIS by the Federal Government which is to root out ghost workers and also ensure that government worker retire on their due dates by discouraging age falsification that has been the practice in the Federal Civil Service. 

“Another set of officers whose records should be looked into, are those officers who joined the Agency on transfer of service who ordinarily should have retired on account of years of service but have erased that record from their record of service to show that they are to retire on account of age. 

“I urge you sir, to cause an investigation by independent body over this age falsification and manipulation of transfer of service record in order to hush out these bad elements who have short changed the entire country by remaining in service when they ought to have retired to pave way for younger Nigerians who are roaming the streets and refund all payments they have received in assess of their service time. On Perpetuation of Directors, Commanders and  Some Operatives In Particular Sensitive Commands; “Mr. President Sir, it will also interest you to know that some Directors of the Agency have been in office as Directors for over twenty (20) years likewise some Commanders. These sit-thight Directors and Commanders have contributed to the lackluster performance of the Agency. It is an elementary principle that when someone remains in a particular office performing the same task or schedule over and over again, that task/schedule becomes monotonous and diminishing returns sets in, this is where NDLEA is today under the leadership of Mr. Abdallah. 

“Related to the above, is the perpetuation of some operatives at the International MM2, is unbelievable that some operatives of the Agency have been serving at the Murtaia Mohammad international Airport Ikeja Lagos, Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport Abuja and Amlnu Kano International Airport Kano for over fifteen (15) years to twenty (20) years. 

“This is not only scandalous but criminal bearing in mind the sensitive nature of the role of NDLEA in the National security as these sit tight officers have been highly compromised to the extent that each time they are posted out after their long stay at the Airport, in most cases, they tender their resignation from the Agency. The basic logic from their reaction is that they have amassed so much wealth through compromise that they believed that they can only serve at the Airport and nowhere else. In the past, the practice was that no operatives serve at the Airport for more than three (3) years dye to the sensitive nature of the Agency’s assignment at the Airport but, Mr. Abdallah for whatever reason best known to him has allowed these set of officers to permanently stay put at the Nation’s gateway at the detriment of the National Security as most of them have even become drug barons or facilitators of drug trafficking. On Financial Impropriety and Recklessness; “Sir, another area of concern of the officers and men of the agency, is the brazen manner Mr. Abdullah has been spending the Monthly allocation of about N48 million, that comes to the Agency as recurrent expenditure. 

“Sir, since Mr. Abdullah assumed Office In January 2016, he has ban starving the Directorates and Commands of funds for the day to day running of their area of assignment. All the money meant for the recurrent expenditure of the Agency goes Into Mr. Abdallah’s pocket. He is not bothered about the mandate of the Agency neither is he interested in the welfare of his Officers. It is on record that Mr. Abdallah has refused to refund claims of officers arising from their personal expenses made in the course of discharging of official assignments but has been paying himself frivolous claims. 

“Before COVID-19 stopped him, he was embarking on frivolous foreign trips sometimes more than twice every month at the detriment of numerous other challenges facing the Agency. Because imprests are not given to the Directors and Commanders from month to month by Mr. Abdallah, most, if not all of them have resorted to safe help by arresting drug dealers and most of times releasing them after negotiations for settlement to enable them raise money for the running of their Offices. He has also been awarding capital project contracts Without following due . 

“Conclusion sir, Mr. Abdallah’s disposition and actions as the CCE of NDLEA for the past four (4) and half years, does not reflect a man With Military background. To say the least, he is not fit and proper to hold any office as his only achievement since his appointment four (4) and half years ago is the relocation of the Agency’s headquarters complex from Lagos to Abuja in a rented apartment. This he has also not completed because about three (3) Directorates With their Directors are still operating from Lagos till date. 

“Finally sir, I decided to write this petition to you because of my conviction that you are a man of justice and fairness, and also because of your passion to see that the right things are done by people occupying political offices. 

“I therefore encourage you sir, to act on this petition by raising an independent body  to investigate  all issues raised and never allow Mr. Abdallah Muhammed or his likes to return for a second term as the Chairman/Chief Executive Officer of National Drugs Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) when his tenure expires In November 2020. 

“Government should also amend NDLEA Act to separate the office of the Chairman of the Board from that of the Accounting Officer who is charged with the responsibility of the day to day running  of the agency. What we have presently, where the chairman is both the chairman of the board of agency and also the accounting officer responsible for day to day running of the agency is undemocratic and must the corrected”.