Police Recruitment: PSC Seeks NDLEA’s Help for Drug Tests

To ensure only suitable individuals graduate from police training colleges nationwide, the Police Service Commission (PSC) is enlisting the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency’s (NDLEA) support to conduct drug integrity tests for police recruits.

PSC Chairman, retired DIG Hashimu Argungu, requested this assistance on Tuesday, July 22, 2025 when he led a PSC delegation on a courtesy visit to NDLEA Chairman/CEO, retired Brig.-Gen. Mohammed Buba Marwa, at the agency’s Abuja headquarters.

According to Femi Babafemi, NDLEA’s Director of Media and Advocacy, in a statement to Persecondnews, Argungu commended the NDLEA’s ongoing support and expressed his desire for further collaboration during the visit.

Argungu said: “I feel there is a need to come and plead, to seek for the assistance and cooperation of this organisation, because we follow process and procedures in anything we do so that we can produce the best results.

“If the process and procedures were followed wrongly, the end result or product is going to be bad. So, recruitment in anywhere, in any sector, if bad eggs are in the process, the product or the people you are training is not going to be good. So, we feel it is very, very important.

“We are going to decentralise this screening exercise to different states of the federation. And because there is NDLEA in every state of the country, we want them to assist us in screening those who are already on drugs in whatever form because we cannot churn out and put arms in the hands of people already dependent on illicit drugs, that is dangerous.

“This is the main reason why we are here, and we are thanking you for your cooperation.”

Responding, Marwa said the drug scourge is a challenge affecting every part of national life and propelling security challenges. He said this explains why there is need for all stakeholders to embrace a whole of government and society approach to curbing the menace.

He said: “On your request for drug integrity test for new police recruits, we are delighted about this and we are happy to collaborate with you on this. We are prepared across all our commands all over the country with high quality test kits that will give you the right results.

“This is important because candidates play all manner of tricks with urine samples but our kits are produced to detect all of those. In all, you can rest assured we will be glad to work with you and support you on this.”