By Vincent Ujumadu
The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control, NAFDAC, has burnt substandard drugs contained in over 100 forty – feet trucks whose street value was put at over N1 trillion.
The drugs were confiscated at the popular Head Bridge drug market, Onitsha, Anambra State and the medicine market in Aba, Abia State, during the month-long operation carried out by NAFDAC and security officials. Director General of NAFDAC, Professor Moji Adeyeye, who spoke through the South East zonal director of the Agency, Dr. Martins Iluyomade at the ASWAMA destruction site in Awka, imagined the number of people that would have consumed the medicines, with the attendant adverse effects.
According to the DG, the action taken by NAFDAC had saved millions of lives of Nigerians, noting that the mopped up drugs were among the highest in the world at a single exercise.
The destruction, she stated, is being coordinated by the office of the National Security Adviser, NSA, because there is a link between fight against hard drugs and security in Nigeria.
Adeyeye said: “We, as an Agency, have come to realize that time has come for us to put an end to circulation of substandard and falsified medicines in Nigeria. “People have cried and we have listened and that is why we are working in such a way that Nigerians can go to bed and sleep, knowing that whatever medicine they take are safe, certified and effective.”
According to her, medicines can be genuine, but when stored inappropriately, it can lose its potency, adding that most of the drugs destroyed in Awka fell under that category as they were virtually kept in the oven by the traders.
“We also saw medicines that had been banned and we wonder the obsession to them.
There are also in circulation, narcotic medicines, including tramadol and these are the things that promote insecurity in the country. Also, many a time, people had used different medicines only to get treatment failures, which, in turn, cause economic failures for the country,” she stated.
She announced that the exercise would be continuous and commended security operatives for their assistance during the month- long exercise.
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