The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) on Wednesday destroyed fake and expired goods worth over N500 million in Abuja.
Speaking during the exercise, the Director-General of the agency, Prof Mojisola Adeyeye, stated that some of the goods were also voluntarily submitted to the agency.
Represented by Mr Francis Ononiwu, NAFDAC Director of Investigation and Enforcement, the D-G stated that the exercise is carried out routinely all over the country.
The NAFDAC boss said that the destruction of the products was done to prevent their re-introduction to the supply chain.
Adeyeye listed some of the products destroyed as drugs made up of psychoactive and controlled substances like antibiotics, antihypertensive, antimalarials, herbal snuff and herbal remedies, and drugs confiscated from drug hawkers.
She also listed the food products such as Spaghetti, vegetable oil, and non-alcoholic beverages, including a 1 by 40ft container of unregistered Faurecia instant-powdered milk that was handed over to the agency by the Nigeria Customs Services (NCS).
Others were cosmetics such as creams, lotion, pomade, including skin-lightening creams seized from spas and beauty centres, chemicals such as fake insecticides and medical devices.
Also destroyed were expired and unwholesome products voluntarily handed over for destruction by compliant companies, Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) and the Association of Community Pharmacy of Nigeria (ACPN).
According to the NAFDAC boss, the estimated street value of the products being destroyed is N535,000,657.
“I have said 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 on substandard and falsified medicine.
“I wish to use this medium to urge all and sundry to be on the lookout for spurious and counterfeit medicines, unwholesome foods and other regulated products and report same to NAFDAC,” she said.
Mr Isiaku Gamajira, FCT Coordinator, Standard Organisation of Nigeria (SON), stated that NAFDAC is a sister agency when it comes to the regulation of products, hence the reason SON was at the event.
He noted that many people lack education on how to get certification for their products, stressing that it is the reason why most goods from Nigeria are rejected abroad.
“We are aware of government policy on zero rejection of Nigeria products, we have a policy called product certification in which a certificate is issued on products made in Nigeria that are to be exported.
“In doing all these, we ensure that we key into the principle set up in line with the government of the exporting country, and issue a certificate of performance to avoid Nigeria product rejection when they get to the point of entry.
“We have offices all over the country where information about product certification can be gotten, our addresses are also available online for you to reach out to us.
“We provide people with proper guidance when they approach us, SON has been carrying out its compliance activities among which is the seizure of substandard products. We have just destroyed tyres.
“Tyre is a product which lives depend on and SON has a serious interest when it comes to compliance action, seizure in that regards, on Sep. 29, SON destroyed a lot of tyres and these are some of the things we do.
“Most of these tyres are imported, it is our own commonwealth, If you see the quantum of what we have destroyed in the last few months, you will be surprised,” Gamajira said.
Mr Enejoh Amade, Chairman, the Association of Community Pharmacists of Nigeria (ACPN), FCT Chapter, said his association would continue to support NAFDAC to rid the country of substandard drugs.
He said that his association had partnered with NAFDAC on the exercise by bringing some expired drugs collected from members of ACPN.