Posted on: Thu 27-02-2025

Director -General of the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), Prof Mojisola Adeyeye, has raised concerns over threats to her life and staff, urging authorities to protect operatives facing daily risks while calling for the death penalty for counterfeit and illicit drug peddlers.

Adeyeye made the disclosure while addressing reporters at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, where she had gone to speak on the agency’s recent large-scale enforcement operation across three major open drug markets in Onitsha, Aba, and Lagos. She described the seizure as the biggest in NAFDAC’s history, adding that the value of illicit and fake drugs was estimated at N1 trillion.

Recall that drug cartels haunted Prof Dora Akunyili due to her relentless efforts to combat counterfeit drugs in Nigeria during her tenure as NAFDAC’s Director-General from 2001 to 2009. Her motivation stemmed from the death of her sister, who passed away after receiving fake insulin. Akunyili’s campaigns led to the closure of open-air medicine markets and the confiscation of large quantities of counterfeit drugs, which earned her numerous threats and an assassination attempt in 2003.

Adeyeye said, “I told you about the attempted murder about six months ago. One of our staff in Kano — his child was kidnapped because the father was doing what he was supposed to do. Fortunately, the child escaped.

“I have two policemen living in my house 24/7 in Abuja and Lagos. I don’t have a life. I cannot go anywhere without police, and to me, that is not my way of living. But I don’t have a choice because we’ve got to save our country. Nonetheless, I also use common sense.”

The NAFDAC boss explained that seized consignments of banned, expired, unregistered, substandard, and falsified medical products will be publicly destroyed in each location where they were seized.

She called on the National Assembly to “expedite the amendment of the NAFDAC Act (NI LFN) and the Counterfeit and Fake Drugs and Unwholesome Processed Foods C34 Act to include life sentences and the death penalty in the penalties for crimes committed under these Acts.”

She noted: “With the signing into law of the Proceeds of Crime Act (POCA) for forfeiture of assets, the assets recovered from suspects will be treated as proceeds of crime after their conviction by the courts.

Adeyeye described the exercise as “purely an enforcement operation to protect public health and rid our country of falsified and substandard medical products,” stressing, “Many people are dying, many have died, as a result of the activities of the fake drug peddlers.”

Shedding more light, Adeyeye said the ongoing crackdown on the illicit drug trade by operatives of the agency has also resulted in the seizure of 87 truckloads of banned, expired, and substandard medical products, including United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA)-donated antiretroviral drugs and male and female condoms.

The operation was executed in Ariaria and Eziukwu Markets (Aba), Bridge Head Market (Onitsha), and Idumota Drug Market (Lagos). Adeyeye revealed that the exercise, which commenced on February 9, 2025, involved 1,100 security operatives, including military personnel, police, and Department of State Services (DSS) agents. According to her, the security forces cordoned off the markets to prevent traders from concealing or smuggling out illegal products.

She said life-saving medications were either improperly stored or deliberately resold for profit, undermining global efforts to combat HIV/AIDS in Nigeria. Significant volumes of Tramadol, Flunitrazepam (Rohypnol), Nitrazepam, and Diazepam—drugs linked to rising drug abuse, crime, and insecurity—were seized.

The Director-General said the sheer volume of these narcotics was deemed sufficient to destabilise national security. She added that a large quantity of Tafrodol, recently banned in India after a BBC undercover investigation exposed its illicit export to Africa, was discovered in Onitsha. According to her, the drug, unapproved anywhere in the world, has been widely abused in Nigeria.

She noted that vaccines, prescription medicines, and thermolabile drugs (requiring cold storage) were found stacked in toilets, staircases, and rooftops at dangerously high temperatures. Similarly, Oxytocin injections and other essential medicines were stored under extreme heat, rendering them ineffective and potentially harmful. Some warehouses were packed with pharmaceuticals in rooms with no windows, where temperatures could reach 40°C, accelerating chemical degradation.

On fake, expired, and unregistered drugs, she disclosed that banned and expired drugs were hidden in plumbing and wood plank sections of Onitsha’s Bridge Head Market, far from the authorities’ usual focus, while unregistered and falsified products were found in over 7,000 shops screened during the operation.

The Director-General announced that 40 arrests have been made so far, with suspects facing prosecution. She also said a database of the offending shops and their owners has been compiled for further legal action.

She spoke of plans by NAFDAC and the Pharmacy Council of Nigeria (PCN) to relocate all open drug markets within the next year to six Coordinated Wholesale Centres (CWCs), one per geopolitical zone.

THIS came as the International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law (Intersociety) petitioned several authorities, including Governor Charles Soludo, the National Assembly, NAFDAC, and security agencies, urging the immediate reopening of the Ogbogwu Drug Market in Onitsha.

The market was closed weeks ago by NAFDAC due to allegations of illegal drug sales. In the petition, dated February 24, 2025, Intersociety expressed concern over the prolonged closure and the delay in concluding investigations into the alleged sale of fake and illicit drugs.

While supporting a thorough investigation, the group highlighted that the closure has negatively impacted traders’ livelihoods. Intersociety Chairman, Emeka Umeagbalasi, called for an investigation into claims of corruption and illegal activities by enforcement operatives involved in the operation.

The petition, which was addressed to several key officials, including Governor Soludo, the NAFDAC Director-General, and the Inspector General of Police, stressed that more than 95 per cent of traders in the market are innocent and suffering from the prolonged shutdown.

Intersociety also called for a transparent investigation into the alleged corrupt practices by enforcement agents and a coordinated effort to reopen the market, along with six adjoining markets.

Furthermore, the petition demanded that NAFDAC provide a full account of its actions and return any wrongly confiscated drugs, particularly those from reputable local and international pharmaceutical companies.

The human rights group warned against policies that could breed crime and urged authorities to act swiftly to restore the livelihoods of traders and prevent further economic hardship.

MEANWHILE, NAFDAC partially reopened major medicine and beverage markets in Abia State, yesterday while pledging to arrest and prosecute those involved in drug counterfeiting.

The affected markets include Tenant Medicine Market, Ekumi Shopping Plaza, which houses both hair and beauty accessory traders alongside pharmaceutical vendors, and Zone 9 in Eziukwu Market. Cemetery Market Zone 9 had been sealed since December 16, 2024, while Ekumi Plaza was shut down two weeks ago as part of a crackdown on counterfeit and adulterated medicines.

Some traders at Ekumi Plaza, particularly those selling beauty products, expressed frustration over the prolonged closure, arguing that they were not involved in pharmaceutical sales. The decision to partially reopen the markets followed high-level discussions between Abia State Governor Dr. Alex Otti and NAFDAC leadership.

At a meeting with market leaders at the Aba South Local Council Office, NAFDAC’s Southeast Zonal Director, Martins Iluyomade, clarified that only shops not sealed by the agency and those not involved in medicine sales would be allowed to resume business. Iluyomade thanked Otti for his support and warned that NAFDAC would prosecute anyone involved in revalidating, relabeling, or counterfeiting medical and consumer products. He condemned the sale of adulterated medicines and beverages, stressing NAFDAC’s commitment to protecting public health.

Governor Otti’s Chief Press Secretary, Ukoha Njoku Ukoha, who represented the governor at the meeting, warned property owners against allowing their premises to be used for the sale of counterfeit or banned products, stating that such properties risked confiscation. He assured that the Abia State government would fully support NAFDAC’s crackdown on fake and adulterated medicines and beverages.

In a related development, a Fellow of the West African Postgraduate College of Pharmacists, Dr Charles Nwako, described the continued circulation of fake and substandard drugs in Nigeria as a serious threat to public health and national security. He likened open drug markets to “centres of terrorism or biological weapons.”

Speaking to The Guardian, he warned that these markets, which remain largely unregulated, have contributed to drug resistance, therapy failures, and preventable deaths.

Nwako emphasised the need to permanently shut down these unregulated drug markets and replace them with a coordinated drug distribution network to curb the risks associated with fake pharmaceuticals.

SOURCE: GUARDIAN NEWSPAPER

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