The National Agency for Food, Drug Administration and Control has stormed the popular Ogbo-Ogwu Market, Bridge Head, Onitsha the Anambra State commercial city with fierce looking, heavily armed soldiers and Armoured Personnel Carrier vehicles in search of fake and adulterated drugs.......CONTINUE READING THE ARTICLE FROM THE SOURCE>>>>>
The exercise took the traders by surprise as Mondays are normally non business days following the lingering sit-at-home exercise imposed by Biafra agitators but the NAFDAC team cordoned off the entire entry and exit routes leading the market from Uga junction, Uga street, Portharcourt Rd and Niger street before the team moved into the market breaking locked up shops and frantically searching different shops for fake and substandard drugs.
Sources said the enforcement exercise will last for one week while the market will remain sealed and shut till after the exercise.
During the enforcement exercise, the operatives of the agency, led by the Director, NAFDAC South East Zone, Dr Martins Iluyomade, confiscated a wide range of adulterated, substandard and expired drugs found at the various shops.
Addressing the media, Iluyomade said the exercise was in line with the agency’s mandate of eradicating fake, banned and other spurious NAFDAC regulated products from circulating in Nigeria and to prevent members of the unsuspecting public from falling victims.
He said the agency was working in collaboration with the market task force in the exercise that led to the seizure of the multiple fake and banned products, adding that it was a combined exercise carried out simultaneously across all the South-East states.
He said, “Today, we are commencing our enforcement exercise at the Ogbo-Ogwu market. What triggered the exercise is that overtime, we have been collating data and gathering intelligence on fake and substandard drugs in the market and we got to the tail end and discovered that people are repackaging and rebagging fake and counterfeit drugs in the market.
“The exercise is aimed at raiding the markets of fake and substandard drugs and those that are made up of spurious, counterfeited and falsified medicinal products, unwholesome processed products and several other unsafe regulated drugs.
“This is taking place simultaneously across the South-East states and it is aimed at sanitising the drug markets and safeguard the health of members of unsuspecting public.
“Among the drugs are expired, banned, substandard, deflective, repackaged and recalled products. We found out that some of the drug dealers are in the habit of imitating some popular drugs and pouring it into containers of the original manufacturer in order to deceive unsuspecting members of the public.
“And these drugs are very sensitive that can lead to death or permanent disability of the consumer. The confiscation of the products would eliminate the risk of their reintroduction into the market and a proof of the agency’s resolve to safeguard the health of the people.”
He advised members of the public to patronise only licensed and registered drug outlets, adding that security operatives and the investigative team of the agency as well as other stakeholders are on ground monitoring and ensuring that the enforcement goes smoothly.
However, when asked, Iluyomade, who could not give the estimated value of confiscated products in monetary terms, said it was an ongoing exercise which can only be determined at the end of it.
Among the products found in the market said to have been faked and counterfeited included antibiotics, anti-hypertensive, anti-diabetic, anti-asthmatic, aphrodisiacs, antimalarial, anti-inflammatory, herbal remedies and psychoactive drugs.
Others were banned drugs such as analgin, tramadol(above 100mg), gentamycin 280mg, codeine and controlled substances, vaccines, alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages, cosmetics, chemicals and unwholesome food, empty plastics, bags and cans, among others.
Though the market union executives led by Ndubisi Chukwuneta declined comments when approached by the reporter, some traders who spoke described the NAFDAC exercise as “witch hunting and another calculated attempt to deal with the Igbo” in the Nigeria system.
One of the traders in the market, Onyeka Okeke said “There are drug markets in Kano and other places outside Igbo land but they won’t go there to raid. Now they have broken into our shops in our absence. How can we be sure that whatever thing they said they recovered in the shops were not planted by them?” he queried.
