The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) said it destroyed counterfeit products worth over N120bn in the country’s six geo-political zones and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) between July and December of the outgoing year.
Director General of NAFDAC, Mojisola Adeyeye who disclosed this assured Nigerians that adequate measures to safeguard the health of Nigerians’ before, and after the yuletide season are in place, emphasizing the need to eat safely and stay safe during the festive period.
She reiterated the need for Nigerians to always procure food and drinks in outlets with identifiable addresses and locations to ease the Agency’s track and trace obligation, adding that medicines and packaged food products that do not have NAFDAC numbers should be avoided. ‘’And when a product is too cheap, it’s most likely to be compromised.’’
However, she disclosed that officers of the agency’s Investigation and Enforcement Directorate (I&E) would continue the ongoing mop-up of substandard and falsified medicines and unwholesome food items from markets across the country.
Officials of the Agency’s Investigation and Enforcement Directorate (I&E), Pharmacovigilance (PV) Directorate and Post-Marketing Surveillance (PMS) Directorate are jointly on the field mopping up falsified medicines, fake wines and drinks and unwholesome food products that could endanger the health of the people during the festive season.
The Agency stormed supermarkets in big cities across the country such as Lagos, Port Harcourt, Aba, Ibadan, Kaduna, and the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, to apprehend manufacturers and merchants of fake drugs and unwholesome foods, during which products worth billions of Naira were confiscated in the last three months of renewed enforcement.
On Wednesday, December 11, 2024, the Agency destroyed expired, unregistered drugs worth N11 billion in Ibadan, Oyo State. In November, the Agency seized N300m worth of fake medicines during a raid on Tyre Village, Trade Fair Complex, Lagos State. Officers of the Agency also burst counterfeit alcohol packaging centres and seized items worth N2 billion in Lagos. This followed reports of illegal revalidation of expired alcoholic beverages at the Trade Fair Complex in Lagos.
The war against substandard and falsified medicines and unwholesome food and drinks moved to Nasarawa State where officers of the Agency, led by the Director of the Federal Capital Territory, FCT Directorate, Kenneth Azikiwe stormed the Karu market situated at the border between FCT and Nasarawa State where bags of repackaged expired rice were confiscated. Products worth about N5 billion were seized during the raid.
Also, in Nasarawa state, the Agency sealed a factory and eight shops for packaging and distributing counterfeit rice, valued at approximately ₦5 billion. The operation was conducted on December 19 at a facility named Ninjur Ventures on Abacha Road, Karu.
Last Friday at Wuse and Garki markets in Abuja, the agency confiscated over 1,600 bags of counterfeit rice worth about N5 billion were being repackaged in branded bags.
Simultaneously,150 shops at Eziukwu Market in Aba, a suburb of Abia State, were shut down following an operation by the Agency.
As the mop-up operation was ongoing in the FCT and Nasarawa State, NAFDAC conducted a two-day operation in the Aba market on December 16 and 17, 2024 during which it uncovered large-scale production and distribution of fake and expired goods including beverages, and carbonated drinks, wines, spirits, vegetable oils, and revalidated food items such as noodles, powdered milk, and yoghurt with a market value of N5bn.
The Agency also destroyed expired, unregistered, counterfeit, and smuggled products valued at ₦10,991,458,374.60 on Wednesday, December 11, 2024,
The items from five states in the Southwest Zone (excluding Lagos) and Kwara State in the North Central Zone were incinerated in Ibadan.
The DG, however, stated that the Agency would not rest on its oars until the merchants of death were forced out of operation, warning that the Agency would make it hard for them to operate freely and endanger the health of innocent consumers.
‘The coming year will be tough for the people that prioritise money over the wellbeing of their fellow human beings by compromising the quality of medicines and food products in the country’, she said.
She urged consumers to scrutinise medicines and branded drinks to distinguish genuine products from counterfeits before consumption. “NAFDAC wishes to advise that the members of the public should be vigilant during this yuletide season.
