March 27, 2018
The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) has confiscated expired drugs worth over N5 million from a drug dealer in Ariaria Market, Aba, Abia.
The state Coordinator of NAFDAC, Mr Olisa Okeke, disclosed this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Tuesday in Aba.
Okeke said that the agency got information that the dealer (names withheld) was used to stocking expired drugs, changing their expiry dates and selling same to unsuspecting members of the public.
According to the coordinator, NAFDAC officers investigated the shop, swooped on it and successfully confiscated many common drugs with March 2017 expiry date and awaiting re-validation.
Okeke, who said that the dealer ran away, gave the assurance that NAFDAC would do its best to ensure his arrest and prosecution.
“We are working hard to clean Aba; so, we are asking the residents to come forward and give us information on persons who do suspicious businesses.
“We got a tip-off concerning expired drug sale in Ariaria, and successfully investigated a particular shop we heard stocked expired drugs awaiting revalidation.
“When we went, we got many cartons of expired drugs earmarked for re-validation by the suspect; the drugs are worth over N5 million,’’
he told NAN.
According to him, the expired drugs include common drugs such as antibiotics, anti-emetic and anti-malaria drugs.
“The investigation is ongoing but the shop owner has been on the run.
“We are monitoring the market; immediately we arrest him, we will move him to our Enforcement Office in Lagos.
“To him for a product that expired in November 2017 to be changed to November 2019 will be very easy for any clever artist.
“Such information is not what NAFDAC will joke with,’’ Okeke said.
Okeke also said that the agency had sanctioned more than 50 bakeries in Aba for claiming to be out of operations while functioning secretly and refusing to renew their NAFDAC licences.
He said that some of them had operated for four years without renewed licences.
“Hence, they have been given commensurate administrative charges to pay for failing to abide by the rules.’’
The coordinator said that NAFDAC had also begun inspection of water-producing factories in Abia to promote good health.
