The National Agency for Food Drugs Administration and Control (NAFDAC) on Thursday destroyed substandard, falsified and expired products in the South East and South South geopolitical zones.
The products, worth N1.4 billion, were destroyed at the Anambra Waste Dump in Awka.
The Director General of NAFDAC, Prof. Mojisola Adeyeye, who supervised the exercise, said the destruction was part of the efforts to rid Nigerian market of unwholesome products and engender public confidence.
Adeyeye, who was represented by Mr Kingsley Ejiofor, Director of Investigation and Enforcement, listed the products to include those seized from manufacturers, importers and the ones voluntarily turned-in by regulation compliant companies.
She said others were those confiscated by Customs Service but violated, unregistered drugs, improperly stored vaccines and tramadol.
The list also included Rohypinol intercepted on Benin-Asaba Expressway and other fake medicinal products intercepted at different times.
“The public destruction of spurious products today would eliminate the risk of reintroduction into the Nigerian markets.
“It is a proof of NAFDAC’s resolve to safeguard the health of the people and ensure that only genuine medicines that are wholesome are sold in Nigeria.
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“The estimated street value of the products destroyed today is N1,429, 580 billion and they include antibiotics, vaccines, alcoholic, cosmetic and chemical products,” Adeyeye said.
She said a warehouse of banned, controlled, fake and counterfeit products, worth millions of naira, had been discovered in Oyi Local Government of Anambra.
The NAFDAC boss said that the items were awaiting destruction, pending the setting aside of a Court Order.
She said apart from seizures and destructions, the agency had been able to secure conviction of culprits, ranging from one year to five years and options of fine.
According to her, drug counterfeiting is an act of economic sabotage and a serious threat to public health.
She said NAFDAC was proactively tackling the challenge by engaging political, traditional and religious leaders to sensitise the public.
Adeyeye also raised the alarm on the circulation of fake COVID-19 vaccines in Africa and warned Nigerians not to take the vaccine from diverted stock or unapproved locations.
The Chairman, Medical Section of Ochanja Central Market, Onitsha, Mr Boniface Muonurikpe, described the public destruction as a welcome development.
Muonurikpe said market associations were willing to work with relevant regulators to ensure that only genuine products were sold.
He said that the activities of fakers had robbed Nigerian markets of public confidence.
Also, the Director of NAFDAC in the South East, Mrs Olajumoke Oyetola, said officers in the zone would stop at nothing to rid the markets of spurious products.
Oyetola appealed to manufacturers and importers to place the lives of Nigerians above other considerations.
He regretted that many had ended up losing their lives as a result of consuming fake products.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the NAFDAC director general was accompanied during the exercise by the agency’s senior directors in the two zones.