The Director-General of the National Agency for Food, Drug Administration and Control NAFDAC, Professor Moji Adeyeye, has appealed to the judiciary to always apply tougher penalty against those found guilty of drug counterfeiting, expired processed food and repugnant cosmetics to serve as deterrent to others.
In a statement by NAFDAC’s Resident Media Consultant, Sayo Akintola, in Lagos on Sunday, Professor Adeyeye lamented that perpetuators of the illicit trade more often than not do capitalize on the weak law in the land to wreak havoc on the nation’s health system.
Speaking against the backdrop of the ongoing destruction of falsified and expired medicines, cosmetics, and unwholesome food products across the country by the Agency, the NAFDAC DG appealed to the judiciary to take sterner view of counterfeiting and apply the maximum penalty of the weak laws to deter counterfeiters and fraudsters from the dangers they pose to the society and all consumers as a result of their dangerous products.
She averred that the dangerous business would be made unattractive if it carries maximum penalty for the offenders.
In the same vein, the NAFDAC DG also pleaded with members of the National Assembly to pass the Counterfeit Medical Products Bill that will reinforce the NAFDAC’s fight against counterfeiting in Nigeria.
She warned that henceforth, there would be no hiding place for the merchants of death, who she said derive joy in the unpatriotic act of circulating expired, falsified drugs and food products, putting the health of millions of Nigerians at risk.
In its renewed efforts to safeguard the health of Nigerians, she said the agency is resolved to go after those who engage in circulation of counterfeited and expired medicines, cosmetics, and spurious food products in the country until they are apprehended and made to face the wrath of the law.
According to her, the agency destroyed unwholesome medicines, expired processed food items and cosmetics worth N1,429,580,683 in Awka, the capital city of Anambra State, in March for South South and South East operations.
In the same month, she recalls that such dangerous products worth N613,300,290 were destroyed in Kano while the Agency moved to Gombe in May to destroy seized counterfeited and expired medicines, and food items worth N515,732.587 mopped up in the Northeast by the Investigation and Enforcement officials of the Agency led by Barrister Kingsley Ejiofor.
According to Professor Adeyeye, fake and expired medicines, and food products worth N2,482,600,290 seized in the South West were destroyed in Shagamu, Ogun State last week.
The NAFDAC DG assured Nigerians that the agency would stop at nothing to apprehend the people who engage in the illicit business of endangering the lives of undiscerning consumers who patronize them.
The destroyed products include drugs such as antibiotics, antihypertensive, antimalarial, herbal remedies, psychoactive, controlled substance.
Food products such as spaghetti, vegetable oil, non-alcoholic beverages, sachet water, Chocolates, Noodles, etc. were also destroyed as well as cosmetics such as creams, pomade, and insecticides.
According to her, the continued destruction of the spurious products would eliminate the risk of their reintroduction into the market, noting that drug counterfeit is an act of economic sabotage and poses serious threat to public health.
Follow The Eagle Online Channel on WhatsApp
