The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) yesterday destroyed unwholesome products worth N535 million it had confiscated in Abuja.
The destruction of the unwholesome products was carried out at the Kuje Dump site.
NAFDAC said the goods were seized and voluntarily recovered from companies in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) and Nasarawa State.
It listed the destroyed goods to include psychoactive and controlled substances, antibiotics, antihypertensives, antimalarials, herbal snuff and herbal remedies either handed over, confiscated from hawkers, expired, fake or substandard.
The Director General of NAFDAC, Prof. Mojisola Adeyeye, who was represented by the Director, Investigation and Enforcement, Francis Ononiwu, put the estimated street value of the destroyed products at N535 million.
While restating NAFDAC’s determination not to relent in its efforts to sanitise the food and drugs subsector, the DG said: “I have said it on several platforms that drug counterfeiting is an act of economic sabotage, and it also represents a serious threat to public health, and NAFDAC under my watch has been repositioned to fight this menace.
“The agency has adopted a proactive approach by engaging political, traditional, faith leaders, journalists, and other Nigerians to sensitise their wards on the dangers of dealing with substandard and falsified medicines”.
She urged Nigerians to be on the lookout for spurious and counterfeit medicines, unwholesome foods, and other regulated products and report the same to NAFDAC.
“NAFDAC on its part will ensure continuous surveillance and heightened raids on these products and we shall continue to enforce the regulations governing these products in Nigeria,” she added.
According to her, some of the drugs destroyed were drugs seized from criminal drug hawkers.
“In July this year the Agency launched a media sensitisation campaign on the ‘Dangers of Drug Hawking and Ripening of Fruits with Carbide’.
“The campaign was launched here in FCT and later taken to all the six geopolitical zones of the federation where our message highlighted the dangers of drug hawking and ripening of fruits with carbide.
“The campaign was followed by coordinated raids on drug hawkers and also on illegal distributors of unregistered herbal medicines.
These activities resulted in mop-up of expired, substandard, and falsified orthodox and traditional medicines from circulation,” she added.
Some of the destroyed unwholesome products were confiscated from drug hawkers, food products such as spaghetti, vegetable oil, and non-alcoholic beverages, including a 1 X 40ft container of unregistered Faurecia instant powdered milk that was handed over to the NAFDAC by the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS).
Also burnt were cosmetics such as creams, lotion, and pomade, including skin-lightening creams seized from spas and beauty centres; chemicals such as fake insecticides and Medical Devices; as well as expired and unwholesome products voluntarily handed over for destruction by compliant companies, Non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and Association of Community Pharmacy of Nigeria (ACPN), among others.
Onyebuchi Ezigbo
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