The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has approved the promotion of 2,788 of its personnel and redeployed 336 others.
Head of Public Affairs, (NDLEA) Mr Jonah Achema, disclosed this in a statement made available to News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Monday in Abuja.
Achema said that the promotion exercise as well as the redeployment cut across both Narcotic Agents and Narcotic Officer Cadres.
He said that the redeployment affected 24 command officers, 198 superintendent cadre officers and 114 other ranks.
He also said that it was expected that the movement would boost morale of officers and men who must have overstayed in one duty post leading to declining productivity and exposure to hazards.
He added that the agency had equally promoted a total of 1,311 staff, which made up of 1,291 staff within the rank and file, and 20 others converted to officer cadre in the first phase of the promotion exercise.
“A total of 290 Chief Superintendent Officers (CSO) have been promoted to Assistant Commanders of Narcotics (ACN).
“529 Superintendent of Narcotics were moved to Chief Superintendent of Narcotics and 673 Deputy Superintendent of Narcotics have been promoted to Superintendent of Narcotics.
“Others promoted were 115 Assistant Superintendent of Narcotics (ASN) to the rank of Deputy Superintendent of Narcotics (DSN) while 662 Assistant Superintendent of Narcotics (ASN) II promoted to the rank of Assistant Superintendent of Narcotics (ASN) I,” he said.
Achema said that others within the rank and file promoted were 519 in number, adding that they included those promoted on account of additional qualification, special promotion and upgrading.
The Chairman, NDLEA, Col. Muhammad Abdallah (Rtd.) urged the officers and men to see their promotion as a call to higher service and to continue to distinguished themselves.
Abdallah said that the promotion exercise followed the completion of the process set in motion by the agency to address the lingering backlog of promotion in the Agency.
“The exercise is expected to spur the benefitting officers and men to put in their best in the service of the agency and the Nation,” he said.
Abdallah said that the exercise was commenced in phases and that the final phase has succeeded in normalizing the structural disjointedness of the workforce.
“In the process, the agency interfaced with the Office of the Head of Service which approved a new Scheme of Service for the agency in line with 2019 Establishment Rules.
“The Scheme of Service, geared towards professionalising the agency has made provision for a new ranking structure of three cadres which are Narcotic Assistant Cadre, Narcotic Agent Cadre and superintendent of Narcotic Cadre.
The NDLEA boss said that six officers of the rank of Commander of Narcotics, (CN), were earlier promoted to the rank of Assistant Commander General of Narcotics, (ACGN).