The Chairman and Chief Executive of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA, retired Brigadier General Mohamed Marwa, has warned that tricycle owners will lose their investments if they are caught using the popular means of transportation to move drug traffickers or illicit substances in any part of the country.

 

Ekwi Ajide of ABS, Abuja Bureau, reports that the NDLEA boss issued the warning when all the thirty six States, including FCT Chairmen of Tricycle Owners Association of Nigeria, TOAN, represented by seven zonal Chairmen of the body, paid him a visit to seek partnership between the NDLEA and the association in the fight against drug abuse and illicit drug trafficking.

 

He warned that many of them may lose their investments if they are caught using the tricycles they had purchased at millions of naira to promote criminalities, especially using them to convey drugs and drug traffickers.

General Marwa urged leaders of the association to prevail on their members who may be involved to desist, insisting that the long arm of the NDLEA will soon catch up with them and they will only have themselves to blame.

 

The NDLEA Chairman expressed readiness of the Agency to partner with the association to educate their members and passengers on dangers of illicit drugs, as well as in the area of intelligence gathering.

 

The leader of the delegation, Comrade Aliyu Shuaibu, said about forty million Nigerians benefit directly and indirectly from the tricycle business in the country, adding that apart from coming to seek collaboration with the NDLEA on the drug war, they have equally come to appreciate General Marwa for his initiatives, such as introducing the tricycle as a means of transportation in Nigeria when he was the military administrator of Lagos State.

 

He said the seed the NDLEA boss sowed in Lagos State years ago is sustaining millions of Nigerians till date.