We need more sniffer dogs to fight drug trafficking, each costs $20,000 - NDLEA boss tells Reps

The Chairman of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) Buba Marwa, has stated that the agency needs more sniffer dogs to fight drug trafficking across the county.

According to him, each sniffer dog costs as much as $20,000.

Marwa made this known when he appeared before the House of Representatives Committee on Narcotics to defend the agency's budget on Thursday November 3, 2022.

He made the disclosure while responding to the Chairman of the Committee, Francis Agbo, who mentioned his observations that there are no sniffer dogs at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja.

Marwa revealed that they have sniffer dogs but he will not disclose the number of dogs in order not to reveal its operational capacity to cartels.

He however stressed that the agency needs more sniffer dogs.

“We definitely need dogs. Dogs cost between $15,000 and $20,000 each. I won’t state in this forum to the hearing of the cartels how many dogs we have.

"We need more dogs. I will take the opportunity to express appreciation to the German criminal police — we work with them. On the dogs, they supply the dogs.

"They just supplied a few. More importantly, they are building a six million euro dog training school in Lagos which would be used also with our neighbours in ECOWAS.

“In Abuja, we are working on the dogs, but drugs do not pass because we have scanners” he said.

BEB