The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) says it will soon destroy fake and unwholesome drugs in the five states of the South East Zone.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Mrs. Olajumoke Ojetokun, the agency’s South East Director, disclosed this in Ibadan while speaking on the agency’s activities in the zone.
She told NAN that the measure was necessary as part of the agency’s enforcement mandate toward ensuring quality and safety of food and drugs in Nigeria.
“We have applied for the destruction exercise because we have so many container loads of such drugs and our stores are filled.
“There are a lot of areas in the South East where we really need to do a lot of enforcement activities; examples are markets in Onitsha, Aba and Enugu.
“We go for raids, we do surveillance and also get tip-off from people; without tip-off, it becomes difficult to catch traders involved in illegality because they have become smart by half.
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“It may even be difficult to know fake products from the genuine ones, so we are collaborating with members of the public to unravel this.
“For instance in April, we got a tip-off that a particular company imported castor oil and is being faked and sold in this particular shop.
“So our officers went there and saw the real one, it was Castor oil but somewhere inside the shop they also saw the fake ones.
“We will intensify our efforts in this regards,” she said.
Ojetokun, a pharmacist, said that the use of illicit drugs especially among school children remains a source of concern.
“NAFDAC is acquiring more facilities to ensure that the agency carries out its mandate and intensifies the drug abuse campaign in schools.
“We are helping ourselves by helping Nigerians; if Nigeria gets better we will all benefit.
“But we need to work harder, trusting that we will also have what we need to perform effectively,” she said.(NAN)