NAFDAC evacuates 100 truckloads of substandard medicines from markets
The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) has evacuated 100 truckloads of substandard, falsified and banned medicines from three major drug markets in the country. The Director General of the agency, Prof. Mojisola Adeyeye in a statement on Sunday said if the substandard medicines were allowed in circulation, they could ruin […]
The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC)
The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) has evacuated 100 truckloads of substandard, falsified and banned medicines from three major drug markets in the country.
The Director General of the agency, Prof. Mojisola Adeyeye in a statement on Sunday said if the substandard medicines were allowed in circulation, they could ruin the country by reducing the quality of life of millions of Nigerians.
Speaking while giving an update on the enforcement exercise carried out in Idumota, Onitsha and Aba drug markets in Lagos, Abia and Anambra states respectively, she said unregistered, banned, expired or medicines with other violations worth over a trillion naira were confiscated.
She said that the agency concluded the enforcement exercise in Idumota and Aba on February 28, 2025, while the exercise still lingered in Onitsha until March 8.
She said, “What we have found could ruin a nation. What we have found could destabilise a government. What we have found could reduce quality of life of millions of Nigerians. If you have diabetes, hypertension which need daily treatment, such people could die easily with what we have found.”
The NAFDAC boss said with a large population of Nigerian youth below age 40, the narcotics found by the agency could take away life from them and fuel banditry and terrorism.
She said overall, 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.
Prof Adeyeye said for Aba and environs,14 truckloads of falsified 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.
She further said in Onitsha, there are 110 lines where they sell drugs, aside from the plumbing market, and the wood plank markets.
Prof Adeyeye explained that the warehouses in the plumbing section were filled to the brim, without windows with temperature 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 going on there, adding that we were there with our police, and our staff and police narrowly escaped death,” she stated.
Prof Adeyeye further 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 that we go through every time in NAFDAC. “
This time, she said the agency evacuated ten 40-foot truckloads of tramadol from the plumbing, wood plank and the fashion lines of the market, also noting with dismay that about four truckloads of syrup with codeine that was banned almost seven years ago were also evacuated.
The NAFDAC DG, however, emphasised that the agency needed to conduct the enforcement in the markets with the purpose of saving lives of Nigerians and to foster trade.
She further explained that if people use banned products, the better alternative that they are supposed to buy locally, they will not buy, making it impossible for local manufacturers of registered products to sell.
“NAFDAC is doing this first for public health, secondly to foster trade and thirdly to reduce the scourge on our country,” she said.