The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) has seized and evacuated over ₦1 trillion worth of substandard, falsified, expired, and banned medicines from open drug markets in Idumota (Lagos), Onitsha (Anambra), and Aba (Abia).
More than 100 truckloads of these dangerous drugs were confiscated in a massive enforcement operation spanning six weeks.
NAFDAC director general, Prof. Mojisola Adeyeye, who disclosed this over the weekend in Lagos, warned that if these drugs had remained in circulation, they could have devastated public health and the economy, reducing the quality of life for millions of Nigerians.
The seized drugs included unregistered medicines, expired products, and narcotics that pose serious health risks.
“What we have found could ruin a nation. What we have found could destabilise a government. What we have found could reduce the quality of life of millions of Nigerians.’ she said, adding that ‘If you have diabetes, hypertension which need daily treatment, such people could die easily with what we have found.’
With a large population of Nigerian youth below age 40, the NAFDAC boss said, ‘the narcotics we found could take away life from them and fuel banditry and terrorism.’
Overall, she said over 100 40-footer truckloads were evacuated, with 27 truckloads from Idumota already destroyed, while in Aba and Onitsha markets, about 80 40-foot truckloads of unregistered, banned medicines and narcotics were seized and evacuated.
For Aba and environs, she disclosed that 14 truckloads of violative medicines were evacuated from the Osisioma warehouse alone, four truckloads from the Ariara Road warehouse, and ten truckloads of the medicines were seized from the markets.
According to her, in Onitsha, there are 110 lines where they sell drugs, aside from the plumbing and wood plank markets.
From the plumbing section, Prof Adeyeye explained that warehouses were filled to the brim, without windows, and with temperatures more than 40 degrees C, subjecting the medicines to degradation before the user starts to use them. “In that plumbing section, we knew through intelligence three or four years ago that something was happening there. We were there with our police, and our staff and police narrowly escaped death,” she added.
Adeyeye explained that the merchants of death, masquerading as medicine dealers among the shop owners, mobbed the police and NAFDAC staff to protect their illicit trade.
She added that about seven months ago, at the Onitsha market, NAFDAC staff went on intelligence again, and they almost killed two of them. “They bloodied them, bleeding. This is the hazard we go through every time in NAFDAC,” she lamented.
This time, she said the Agency evacuated ten 40-foot truckloads of tramadol from the plumbing, wood plank, and fashion lines of the market, noting with dismay that about four truckloads of syrup with codeine, which was banned almost seven years ago, were also evacuated.
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