The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control, NAFDAC, has conducted a significant operation resulting in the seizure of over 100 truckloads of illicit and unsafe pharmaceutical products.
The confiscated items include banned narcotics and a range of substandard, falsified, and expired medications. These were discovered and seized from prominent medicines markets located within Abia, Anambra, and Lagos states.
NAFDAC’s Resident Media Consultant, Sayo Akintola, revealed this in a statement on Saturday, warning that if the seizure of the medicines worth over ₦1 trillion had not taken place, it could have caused a national health crisis.
Quoting NAFDAC’s Director-General, Prof. Mojisola Adeyeye, Akintola revealed that the seized medicines had the potential to destabilize the country.
“What we have found could ruin a nation. What we have found could destabilize a government. What we have found could reduce the quality of life of millions of Nigerians,” she said.
She added that many of the confiscated hypertension and diabetes medications were fake or expired, putting lives at serious risk.
She also raised the alarm over the large quantities of narcotics found in these markets, warning that they could fuel banditry and terrorism, especially among the country’s youth population under 40.
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Akintola further stated that several past attempts to raid these markets had been met with violence, as drug dealers fought to protect their illegal business.
He recalled that NAFDAC officers and police personnel narrowly escaped death during the recent Onitsha operation.
“We knew through intelligence three or four years ago that something was going on there. We were there with our police, and our staff and police narrowly escaped death,” Adeyeye was quoted as saying.
According to her, seven months ago, two NAFDAC officials were nearly killed in Onitsha while gathering intelligence.
“They bloodied them, bleeding. This is the hazard that we go through every time in NAFDAC,” she lamented.
However, Akintola affirmed that NAFDAC remained committed to protecting public health and fostering legitimate trade.
“NAFDAC is doing this first for public health, secondly to foster trade, and thirdly to reduce the scourge on our country,” Adeyeye stated.
She explained that drug counterfeiting not only endangered lives but also harmed local pharmaceutical manufacturers, making it difficult for them to compete.
She stressed that tackling the menace of fake drugs and illegal narcotics was crucial to safeguarding the health of Nigerians.
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