By: Kingsley Omonobi

The French government has assured the leadership of  National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA, of more robust support in the areas of training, capacity building and logistics to further boost the operational capability of the agency in its ongoing effort to curb the scourge of substance abuse and illicit drug trafficking.

The assurance was given, yesterday, during a meeting between a French delegation led by Lt. Gen. Regis Colcombet, Director, Security and Defence Cooperation at the French Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs and Chairman of NDLEA, Brig. Gen. Mohamed Marwa (retd) at the agency’s headquarters in Abuja.

Colcombet said the meeting with the NDLEA Chairman and his team was a follow up to bilateral agreements reached between President Emmanuel Macron of France and President Bola Tinubu during his recent state visit to Paris.

He recalled that he had also met Marwa in a similar meeting in France about two years ago on areas of support for the NDLEA.

He said: “It’s important for us to be here, because it’s now three months after the very successful state visit of your president to France, which has a lot of developments.

“We’ve been requested to come, develop, follow up and see how we can go further on the development of this cooperation. It’s very important.”

Marwa in his remarks, expressed delight in the advancement and growth of the relationship between Nigeria and France following the good rapport between President Tinubu and President Macron.

He added that, that has provided a lot of leverage for NDLEA to deepen its relationship with its counterparts in France.