The ruling All Progressives Congress APC has reacted to the request by the Nigeria Drug Law Enforcement Agency NDLEA that aspirants for various elective offices ahead of its forthcoming primary elections be made to undergo a drug test.
National Publicity Secretary of the party, Barr. Felix Morka who confirmed that the party has received the letter, however stated that its contents have not been tabled for discussion by the National Working Committee NWC.
“We haven’t taken a position on it. We haven’t met on it”, Morka told correspondents.
The Chairman and Chief Executive of the NDLEA, Brig. Gen. Buba Marwa (retd) had last week written the APC National Chairman, Sen. Abdullahi Adamu, requesting that officials of the NDLEA be given access to conduct drug integrity tests for politicians seeking political offices in the country.
Marwa said when it is the turn of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party PDP and others to conduct their party primaries, he would also write their national chairmen and request that operatives of NDLEA be allowed to conduct drug integrity tests on politicians aspiring for higher offices.
Although, APC has not deliberated on the matter, an official of the party who did not want his name mentioned in this report as he was not authorized to speak to the media, described the NDLEA’s position as illegal.
“Marwa is a respected member of this party but on this matter, we believe he has not been briefed appropriately, because if he was properly briefed, he would have known the set of laws guiding political party operations and understood that he cannot make such requests.
“I can hazard a guess that the letter is dead on arrival. I don’t even expect the party hierarchy to start meeting on the issue”, he stated.
Vanguard
