Lawrence Nwimo, Awka
The National Agency for Food Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), Friday, set on fire drugs worth N1trillion discovered to be fake, counterfeit and substandard.
The Director-General, NAFDAC, Professor Mojisola Adeyeye, performed the function at Anambra State Dumpsite in Awka, the state capital.
Performing the exercise, Adeyeye said the drugs were seized from Onitsha and Aba (Abia State) during the one month enforcement exercise held across markets geared towards sanitising them of unhealthy drugs.
The exercise which was held at Onitsha drug market in Anambra State and Aba drug market in Abia State between February 10 and March 5, 2025, got the agency recovering over 100 truckload of fake and counterfeit pharmaceutical products.
Adeyeye, represented by the South-East Director, NAFDAC, Dr Martins Iluyomade, explained that most of the recovered products included drugs banned since 2008, including anagelsic, narcotics, tramadol, among others.
“You can imagine how many people could have died or suffer system failure if they had taken these substandard medicines. This was huge and humogenous, one of the highest so far. This could be why Nigeria has recorded many number of maternal mortality in recent time. Allowing these types of drugs in the market constitutes health hazards and security threat to the nation,” she added.
She thanked the Anambra State Governor, Professor Chukwuma Soludo, and his counterpart from Abia State, Dr Alex Oti, for their supports to the agency throughout the cause of the exercise, assuring that it would be continuous for the betterment of the nation.
Speaking earlier, Governor Chukwuma Soludo, represented by the Managing Director of Anambra State Waste Management Agency (ASWAMA), Mr Mike Ozoemena, commended NAFDAC for the exercise, which according to him, was in line with the administration’s effort to get rid of insecurity, crimes and other unhealthy acts from the State.
