NAFDAC destroys N2B falsified medicines, vaccines, counterfeit cosmetics, expired food products
By Chioma Obinna
Determined to eradicate fake drugs in Nigeria, the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control, NAFDAC, has destroyed counterfeit drugs and vaccines, cosmetics, and expired food items worth over N2 billion. The destruction exercise took place in Kano and Awka, Anambra state.
The operatives of the Agency had combed the nooks and crannies of the three geo-political zones of the federation, namely, North West, South East and South-South to mop up expired drugs and unwholesome food products with a view to safeguarding the health of the Nigerian people.
While counterfeit drugs and spurious food products worth over N1.4billion seized from both the South East and South-South zones were destroyed in Awka, Anambra state on Thursday, similar dangerous drugs, and unwholesome food items worth N613m were destroyed at the Kalebawa dumpsite along Kazaure-Daura road, Dambatta, Kano.
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Speaking on the development, the Director-General of NAFDAC, Prof. Mojisola Adeyeye warned that henceforth, there would be no hiding place for the merchants of death who she said; derive joy in the unpatriotic act of circulating expired, falsified drugs and food products.
Adeyeye noted that the destruction was part of the efforts to rid the Nigerian market of unwholesome products and engender public confidence.
Represented by Barrister Kingsley Ejiofor, the Director of Investigation and Enforcement in the Agency, she said that the fake products were seized by the operatives of the Agency during various operations in the zones, stressing that other operatives of the Agency are all over the country sniffing around to apprehend others who are still in the deadly business.
‘’The estimated value of the products destroyed in Kano is N613,300,290.00 while fake products worth N1, 429,580,683.00 were destroyed in Awka, Anambra State, totalling N2,042,880,973.00’’, she said.
According to her, the products include drugs such as antibiotics, antihypertensive, antimalarial, herbal remedies, psychoactive, controlled substance.
‘’Food products such as spaghetti, vegetable oil, non-alcoholic beverages, sachet water, Chocolates, Noodles, etc. were also destroyed as well as cosmetics such as creams, pomade, and insecticides’’, she added.
According to her, the destruction of the dangerous products would eliminate the risk of their reintroduction into the market, noting that drug counterfeit is an act of economic sabotage and pose serious threat to public health.
“It is proof of NAFDAC’s resolve to safeguard the health of the people and ensure that only genuine medicines that are wholesome are sold in Nigeria’’, she reiterates.
The Kano State Commissioner for Environment, Dr Kabiru Ibrahim-Getso, and the Chairman, Medical Section of Ochanja Central Market, Onitsha, Mr Boniface Muonurikpe, lauded NAFDAC for its campaign to check the circulation of fake and substandard products in the country.
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