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Even as the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) said it had sealed over 11,000 shops while 40 individuals have been arrested in its ongoing nationwide clampdown on fake and substandard medicines, a call by the HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA (HURIWA) has gone to the NADFAC, Nigeria Police Force and Nigeria Custom services to flush out their operatives and officers who looked the other way and allowed the importation of fake and substandard foods and drugs into Nigeria.
HURIWA stated that under the second schedule, legislative powers, part 1, Exclusive legislative list, Article 21 provides that drugs are under the regulatory control and purview of the federal government which makes it imperative that officials of the federal government who facilitate importation of substandard drugs must be identified, investigated, arrested, prosecuted and punished in strict compliance with the due process of the law. HURIWA is of the position that law enforcement agents who conspire with importers of fake drugs should face a lifetime jail terms without any possibility of early release. Similarly, manufacturers of fake drugs and substandard products if caught should be jailed for life.
Besides, HURIWA has asked the NAFDAC’s DG, Mrs. Professor Mojisola Adeyeye to step up her personal security, scrutinise what she eats and drinks, because if you fight drug lords who are kingpins of the underworld, you must of necessity be many steps ahead of them in terms of your personal security.
HURIWA recalled that attempts were made on the life of the then NAFDAC’S DG Professor (Mrs) Dora Akunyili and she allegedly died of mysterious illness just as her husband was suspiciously gunned down in Onitsha, the same place Mrs. Dora Akunyili waged relentless war against fake and substandard drugs.
The National Coordinator of the HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA (HURIWA) Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko, said in as much as the operations to flush out fake and substandard drugs by NAFDAC is a step in the right direction, it however said these operations may become an ‘annual ritual’ unless and until the hierarchies of the Nigeria police force, NAFDAC and Customs are able to identify operatives and officers attached to the nation’s seaports and international airports that conspired with importers of fake and substandard drugs from mostly Asian nations of India and China and then dismiss, prosecute and jail them for sabotaging the national economy and circulating poisonous, deadly and toxic chemical to Nigerians as medication.
HURIWA recalled that the DG of NAFDAC Mrs. Mojisola Adeyeye had stated thus:
“We have closed over 4,000 shops in Onitsha, 3,027 shops in Lagos and 4,000 shops in Aba since we commenced these operations.”
Mrs. Adeyeye added that the enforcement operations at the three markets which are the hub of distributions of over 80 per cent of medications, will rid the country of falsified and unregistered drugs.
The NAFDAC boss also revealed that the enforcement actions at the three markets was planned over a year as covert operations.
HURIWA recalled that NAFDAC on Feb.10, commenced enforcement operations at the Idumota open drugs market, Ariaria drug market in Aba and Bridge market in Onitsha.
Adeyeye said that over 20 trucks of substandard drugs were evacuated at different locations in Aba, not less than 30 trucks of confiscated drugs were seized in Onitsha while 27 trucks were evacuated at the Idumota market.
She said: “We are winding down our operations at Aba because we have almost finished with evacuation.
“Our next phase is to start going shop by shop to know those who have registered and those who have not registered.
“In Onitsha, we have done 20 per cent job. We have to do a holistic work because we have some traders who are genuine, but they are not registered under the Pharmaceutical Council of Nigeria (PCN).”
HURIWA expressed disappointment that those top-notch regulators from NAFDAC and law enforcement agents from the Nigerian Customs Service and the Nigeria Police Force deployed to the various Sea ports and Air ports in Nigeria from where these fake drugs and substandard products are brought into Nigeria, have not been flushed out of the system in the Country which in HURIWA’S own words ‘this is penny wise, pound foolish’ because as soon as these confiscated fake, substandard drugs and products are destroyed by NAFDAC, many more could still flood into Nigeria because the business of selling fake, and substandard drugs and products is a multi billion dollars enterprise.
“The federal government should task these regulatory bodies and the law enforcement agencies to identify the top officers who were deployed in the seaports and airports and then investigate them to ascertain their levels of involvement in the daredevil criminality of importation of fake drugs and products into Nigeria. Aside the issue of economic sabotage, the consumption of fake medications lead to collapse of vital human organs and these are responsible for the several cases of kidney failures recorded in Nigeria.”
HURIWA stated that unlike the Anambra State Governor, Charles Soludo, who raised concerns over the influx of counterfeit drugs into Onitsha’s Ọgbọ Ogwu market, questioning how banned substances continue to evade federal scrutiny and enter Nigeria’s markets, we are definitively certain that fake drugs can’t be imported successfully and distributed to diverse markets in Nigeria without the involvement of officials of NAFDAC, officers of police and customs who work at the ports in Nigeria.
During a visit to the market on Thursday, the Anambra State governor Charles Chukwuma Soludo described the discoveries made by federal regulators as “shocking and disturbing.”
He revealed that cartons of globally banned counterfeit and controlled drugs were found not only in the drug market but also in the neighbouring Plumbing Materials Market.
“With drugs and related matters strictly on the exclusive list, my visit today was interventionist,” Soludo stated.
HURIWA stated that the massive volumes of fake drugs and products seized by NAFDAC, has reinforced our advocacy for massive radical internal cleansing right within NAFDAC, Nigeria Police Force and Nigeria Custom services because these agencies are mandated by the constitution to stop the inflow of fake drugs and substandard products into Nigeria.
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