The National Agency For Food Administration And Control (NAFDAC) today destroyed the largest amount of fake, expired and adulterated drugs worth over one trillion Naira in Awka, capital of Anambra State.
Director of the agency in the South East and coordinator of operations in the South East Dr. Martins Iluyomade who represented the Director-General said the drugs represented the highest amount of drugs ever destroyed by burning by the agency, reports Daily Independent.
Iliyomade said the drugs were seized by the agency from Aba and Onitsha drug markets following a one-month operation.
He thanked the media, Governor Chukwuma Soludo of Anambra State who he said came to the drug market during the closure, Anambra people as well as Governor Alex Otti of Abia State for their support.
He said the operation is not a one-off thing but continuous until the country is rid of dangerous drugs.
He added; “We, as an agency have come to realise that the time has come to put an end to substandard, fake, falsified medicines in Nigeria. Different calls and cries have been made and we can assure that Nigeria can go to bed because different products are safe for our people”
He lamented that the processes through which drugs get bad can be through bad storage and wrong packaging.
Iluyomade said: “Sometimes we can say that medicine is good but they fail us. Medicine is not a thing of choice. When there is treatment failure it may come from an inappropriate holder or stored in the wrong place which can make it expire earlier than expected.
Talking about the effects of banned drugs, Iluyomade said it can cause criminality among youths and can lead to instability.
On the quantity of drugs destroyed, he said over 100 trucks of 40 ft valued over a trillion Naira. You can imagine how many people would have taken it and the damage it would have caused.
The destruction was witnessed by the Commander of 305 Artillery Brigade Onitsha Colonel A. K. Mohammed, Director of Enforcement and Investigation Soji Omeyemi, Director of State Security Services among others.
