‘A dog costs N16m, NDLEA needs more for drug war,’ Marwa tells lawmakers at 2023 budget defence

The Chairman of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), Buba Marwa, said on Thursday the agency was in dire need of sniffer dogs to undertake the war against drug trafficking in the country.

The NDLEA boss, who disclosed when he appeared before the House of Representatives Committee on Narcotics to defend the agency’s 2023 budget, said each sniffer dog would cost about $20,000.

At the parallel market, the dollar was sold for N800, therefore a sniffer dog would cost the Nigerian government N16 million going by Marwa’s projection.

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He said: “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.”

The former army officer revealed that the agency was proposing a N40 billion budget for 2023.

He added that N18.6 billion had been set aside as recurrent expenditure and N21.4 billion for capital spending.

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