The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA, has debunked claims that a certain former Chairman/CEO of the Agency sold off its Ikoyi Lagos headquarters office building.
The Agency’s Director, Media and Advocacy, Mr. Femi Babafemi, made the clarification in a statement issued Wednesday, 20 July, 2022.
TheFact Daily reports that while describing the claims contained in an anonymous write up and circulated on WhatsApp platforms as “a total distortion of facts”, Babafemi explained that the building being referred to did not belong to the Agency in the first place, but only served as its national headquarters before its relocation to Abuja some years ago.
“It should be noted that a Presidential Implementation Committee (PIC) on Federal Government Landed Properties took over the building following a government directive that all vacated or underutilized government properties be taken over by the PIC, sold and proceeds paid to the coffers of the federal government”, Babafemi said.
He also disclosed that those staff who did not relocate to Abuja with others at the time the Agency moved, are still occupying the Agency’s Shaw Road office in Ikoyi, and will join their colleagues in the main headquarters in Abuja “as soon as the new headquarters building recently bought by the Federal government for the Agency, is ready for occupation.
Babafemi further clarified that the NDLEA, like other Federal Government agencies whose properties were taken over by the PIC, has no hand in the sale of the mentioned property, neither does it know who bought them and for how much, as the presidential committee solely handled the sale.
He said that the Agency’s present challenge of ensuring the protection of its staff who live within communities where they are exposed to danger, is already being addressed by the federal government through budgetary provisions for the construction of secure barracks across the country starting from this year.
He therefore urged members of the public to disregard the anonymous write up, “which is nothing but an embodiment of distortion and mischief”.
