The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control
(NAFDAC) on Tuesday, 8th September, said it confiscated drugs worth over
N25million, sealed 15 shops and arrested 3 traders at Igbudu market,
Warri, Delta state.
The Chief Regulatory Officer, Enforcement
Operation of NAFDAC in Lagos, Uche Chidi, told journalists that the
traders were in possession of banned and expired products.
“The goods they (traders) have are not actually the approved products they are supposed to have….
“They
are supposed to handle under-the-counter-products, but they go beyond
their range to bring in products donated by the United Nations
Population Funds.
“We also found injection water that (had)
expired in 2011, Analgin and other injectable, [some] Pakistani
unregistered products and other banned products,” he said.
Mr.
Chidi said the agency would carry out periodic surveillance and
inspection of the market to prevent the sale of banned and expired
drugs.
Also speaking, the Chief Regulatory Officer of NAFDAC in
Delta State, Nwaneka Uba, said it was heart-breaking for unqualified
people to sell drugs.
“These people are not professional drugs
dealers. There are some drugs that should be handled by professionals
because of the pharmacological actions of the drugs.
“We saw
Analgin and government donated drugs that should not be sold inside
their shops; we shall investigate to ascertain how these drugs got into
their possession.
“Analgin product was banned over 10 years ago
by the federal government and many people have died by using Analgin,”
Mrs. Uba said.
She said the team had earlier stormed Otor-Udu, a community in Warri where locally brewed gin called Ogogoro was produced.
She
said that some sample of the gin was collected for laboratory analysis,
adding that the result would determine the agency’s next line of action
against those selling the product.
“If the product is not
harmful, we will report to the management and they will tell us the next
line of action to take,” she said.
(NAN)
