The National Assembly has passed a harmonised version of the Bill to ammend the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) Act which prescribes life imprisonment for drug offenders.
The House of Representatives considered its third reading and passage on Tuesday 24th February 2024, while the Senate in concurrence considered its third reading and passage on Thursday, 6th June 2024.
There was however a significant difference in the version of the Bill passed by both chambers.
While the Senate version prescribes the death penalty , the house version proposes life imprisonment.
Consequently, the House of Representatives constituted a conference committee to interface with the Senate with a view to harmonising the differences between the House and Senate version of the Bill, particularly clause 11.
The House version of clause 11 was eventually adopted which proposes that: “Any person who is ununlawfully concerned in the storage, custody, movement, carriage or concealment of dangerous drugs or controlled substances and who, while so concerned is armed with any offensive weapon or is disguised in any way, shall be guilty of an offence under this Bill and liable on conviction to be sentenced to life imprisonment”
The Senate during plenary on considered the conference report and unanimously resolved to adopt the House version of clause 11.
The Bill aims to strengthen the operations of the agency, empower the agency to establish laboratories, update the list of dangerous drugs, review the penalty provisions, enhance the power of the agency to prosecute drug-related offences and issue subsidiary legislation.
In the amendment, a new sub-section 4 is added to section 46 which proposes that “The agency shall retain a portion of the proceeds of forfeited assets from drug-related cases for use in its operations”. The Bill now awaits President Bola Tinubu’s assent.
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