Pregnant woman can escape from NDLEA cells – DG

The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency has painted a gloomy picture of its cells, saying a pregnant woman could embark on a jailbreak due to the weak implementation of anti-graft laws.
The Director-General of NDLEA, Alhaji Ahmadu Giade, represented by Mr. Femi Ajayi, stated this in Abuja during the launch of phase II of the Technical Unit on Governance and Anti-Corruption Reforms scoping study on gap analysis of anti-corruption initiatives in the public finance management system in Nigeria.
He identified weak institutions as the bane of most of the agencies that battle corruption in Nigeria.
According to him, one of the challenges in the battle against corruption is the fact that most of the agencies lack the wherewithal to implement the anti-graft laws.
While citing an example, he said that some NDLEA commands did not have standard cells, adding that to safeguard the custody meant that the personnel must keep vigil.
He said, “In the NDLEA, for instance, sometimes you see them punishing people for offences they did not commit. I was part of a board on the issue of what you call jailbreak. The issue is that most of the NDLEA commands do not have what we call standard cells. Even a pregnant woman can escape from some of the cells because they are not standard cells.”
Chairman of Nigerian Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, Mr. Ledum Mitee, said that the report that was being launched would improve the anti-corruption database.
Executive Secretary of NEITI, Hajiya Zainab Ibrahim, said, “We welcome the ongoing corruption risk assessment project TUGAR is carrying out in cooperation with other IATT members. We particularly welcome the pilot assessments being planned in selected Ministries, Departments and Agencies.”
Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Ibrahim Larmode, represented by the commission’s Secretary, Mr. Emmanuel Akomoye, advised state governments to complement the efforts of the Federal Government in the implementation of the anti- corruption laws.
He said, “We want to see states initiate investigations. Even where the states have anti-corruption laws, we are yet to see the result of what they are doing at the state level.”