The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) held a press briefing on Tuesday, September 19, 2023 in Abuja to discuss the upcoming 31st Meeting of Heads of National Drug Law Enforcement Agencies (HONLAF).
The meeting, set to take place in Abuja on September 26, 2023, will have President Bola Tinubu and delegates from 54 African countries in attendance. The main focus of the meeting will be on alternative development to cannabis cultivation, assets forfeiture, cryptocurrency, money laundering, and cooperation among drug cartels.
President Tinubu will deliver the keynote address and declare the conference open as the special guest of honour. The opening ceremony will also have the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Lateef Fagbemi, SAN, invited ministers, and heads of relevant parastatals and agencies.
On Tuesday, September 19, 2023, the Secretary to the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, Shadrach Haruna, and the Country Representative of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, Oliver Stolpe, held a joint press conference in Abuja. At the conference, Haruna, who represented the Chairman of the NDLEA, Brigadier General Buba Marwa (retd.), announced that the 31st meeting of the HONLAF, a subsidiary body of the United Nations Commission on Narcotic Drugs, will take place in Abuja from Tuesday, September 26 to Friday, September 29, 2023. The HONLAF meeting will bring together heads of drug law enforcement agencies in Africa to discuss and develop strategies to combat drug trafficking and abuse in the region.
According to Haruna, the annual HONLAF meeting will include activities such as technical meetings, paper presentations, deliberations on reports and trends, workshops, and bilateral talks among member nations. It provides a platform to establish collaborations in the areas of shared intelligence, joint training, and joint operations against international drug cartels operating in the African region. As the chair and host of this year’s meeting, Nigeria will welcome delegates from 53 other African countries, as well as representatives from observer bodies and non-African countries attending to watch the proceedings.
The conference will also provide opportunities for bilateral meetings on the sidelines of the main agenda. At the previous HONLAF meeting in Nairobi, Nigeria seized the opportunity to broker bilateral cooperation with several countries to form a strong regional defence against transnational illicit drug organisations trying to establish bases in the region.
Dr. Oliver Stolpe added that the HONLAF meeting will focus on regional and national cooperation to reduce illicit production and cultivation of illicit drugs. The conference will also discuss alternative development, financial investigation in drug trafficking cases, the role of cryptocurrency in drug trafficking cases, and money laundering. The opening ceremony of the HONLAF meeting will also include a report on organised crime trends that constitute a threat to Nigeria. It is a positive development that Nigeria is hosting the 31st HONLAF meeting, which is indicative of the trust in the leadership quality of NDLEA among its peers on the continent.