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Tag: Mojisola Adeyeye

  • NAFDAC DG reads riot act to fake drug dealers

    NAFDAC DG reads riot act to fake drug dealers

    The Director General of the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control, NAFDAC, Prof. Mojisola Adeyeye has said that ‘enough is enough’ to recalcitrant fake drug peddlers as two more massive warehouses full of fake and expired medicines were uncovered over the weekend in Aba, truckloads in Idumota, Lagos and Onitsha, Anambra State.

    Last week, the Agency uncovered a major operation depot dealing in expired and falsified drugs at Umumeje village, Osisioma Ngwa area of Abia State where the illegal operation was being run from multiple buildings near the Ariaria International Market. The expired medicines were repackaged and revalidated for resale, posing a significant health risk to consumers.

    Seized items consisted of expired potassium chloride, allergy medications, immune boosters, and cholesterol treatments. Machines used to rebrand and alter expiry dates were also discovered on-site.

    The depot was discovered when NAFDAC operatives raided the facility in collaboration with a joint security team as part of the Agency’s intensified crackdown on counterfeit medicines which commenced on Monday.

    During the raid, some individuals were arrested, but the prime suspect remains at large. Despite efforts to reach him, he showed no concern for his detained family members.

    Later in the week, the NAFDAC enforcement officers and security forces from NSA uncovered another drugs depot at 269 Faulks road, Aba. During the raids, NAFDAC operatives discovered machines used to rebrand and alter the expiry dates of medications, along with a large quantity of rebagged containers and fraudulent packaging materials.

    Read Also: Nigeria should be the most developed, says Tinubu

    This operation follows extensive data collection and intelligence gathering, which revealed large-scale repackaging of counterfeit drugs in the market,

    At Onitsha, the Agency uncovered and seized fake, expired and falsified drugs (14 trucks loaded) at the Ogbo-Ogwu Bridge Head Market in Onitsha, Anambra State. The operation, which commenced on Monday, February 10, 2025,  has already led to many shop raids, revealing a disturbing volume of adulterated and substandard medications worth billions of naira.

    NAFDAC’s investigation highlighted the market as a hub for repackaging and revalidating expired medicines, which are often sold to unsuspecting consumers with fraudulent claims of authenticity.

    Director of NAFDAC’s Southeast Zone Mr. Martins Iluyomade said that several containers bearing fake NAFDAC approvals were among the  drugs.

    So far, we have conseizedfiscated no fewer than 14 trucks, each carrying a 40-foot container filled with fake, substandard, and adulterated drugs from the market. Some of these drugs even bear fraudulent NAFDAC approval claims. ‘We detected these fraudulent claims using our scanning and detection machines.’ The seized drugs include expired, banned, substandard, defective, repackaged, and recalled products.’

    The continued enforcement operation in Lagos targeted major distributors suspected of supplying counterfeit drugs to pharmacies and hospitals across the state.

    In the first week of the enforcement operation, NAFDAC screened and sealed over 3000 shops inside Open Drug Market Idumota in Lagos. Items discovered were vaccines in dilapidated, unventilated rooms sealed with Iron sheets in a very filthy environment.

    Others were banned products like large consignments of banned Analgin Injections, diverted Free HIV and Retroviral Drugs, expired drugs kept for revalidation, unregistered drugs, etc.  The Agency was able to evacuate illicit pharmaceuticals of the equivalent of 12 trucks.

    Furthermore, empty packs of cartons of expired unregistered antimalarial injections were discovered inside a packing shop with the vials removed. Various brands of Codeine Cough Syrup and Tramadol 225 were discovered in a warehouse within the market, away from the pharmaceutical section where other products are sold.

    Adeyeye, however, insisted that the agency would not rest on its oars until the market is completely sanitised. She said, ‘enough is enough’, we shall not look away while a few disgruntled elements in society continue to kill unsuspecting consumers through substandard and falsified medicines.

    The NAFDAC boss further explained that the extended enforcement operation targets the three major markets simultaneously in Idumota, Onitsha and Aba, which distribute a significant percent of medicines in the country. ‘The goal is to stop the sale of counterfeit, substandard, expired, and rebranded drugs that pose significant health risks to Nigerians with a continued goal to safeguarding the health of Nigerians’

  • Cocktail of quackery

    Cocktail of quackery

    • It’s time to step up the fight

    The media recently reported, with pictures and videos, the array of fake products, including wines, soft drinks and other consumables, discovered at the Eziukwu market in Aba, Abia State, by the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration (NAFDAC). Ten suspects were reportedly arrested and the NAFDAC’s Director General (DG), Mojisola Adeyeye, told the media that the market would remain closed until the agency and the market operators reached an agreement that they would henceforth checkmate criminals who fake food and drugs in the market. Police had arrested about ten suspects from about 240 shops-turned factories that were raided.

    Also, two men, one Imo Lawrence, aged 35, and his accomplice, Magnus Nwonka, aged 42, were recently arrested in the Ojo area of Lagos, where they were allegedly faking and bottling drinks. After the shocking discovery of fake drinks in Aba, the Lagos discovery reinforced the possibility that the production of fake drinks happens nationwide.

    NAFDAC’s list of adulterated drinks in circulation includes Seaman Schnapps, Henessy, Four Cousins, Carlo Rossi, Jenney, Chelsea London Dry Gin, Schnapp Dry Gin, McDowells, Black Labels, Gordons, Martell, Campari, Smirnoff Ice, Eva Non-Alcoholic Drink, Evra Non-Alcoholic Drink, Cartel.

    We are glad that NAFDAC raided the Eziukwu market,  also called ‘Cemetery’ market, where they destroyed some of the fake products worth about N750m.  Lamentably, the agency seems to have become lethargic since the tragic death of Prof. Dora Akunyili, its former Director General. Akunyili took the fight to the enemy. She even confronted countries producing adulterated drugs or serving as conduits for export to Nigeria and other West African countries.

    The fight against fake and adulterated products is a serious fight because criminal gangs do everything to protect their criminality. Therefore, NAFDAC and other agencies of government charged with gatekeeping, investigations and policing must continually review their methods.

    The NAFDAC DG, while commenting on the effects of consuming fake alcoholic drinks, which the World Health Organisation (WHO) says claims up to 3million lives annually, listed the side effects such as nausea, abdominal pains, pale skin, irregular and slow breathing, dizziness, drowsiness etc. but she failed to catalogue the effects on human organs of the consumption of fake and adulterated foods and drugs.

    We believe that the increase in kidney and other sensitive organs’ ailments can be partly blamed on the consumption of fake foods and drugs.  As she observed, those involved in the criminal activities are mostly hidden in very dirty and unhygienic buildings, and use harmful chemicals, cheaper sources of sugar, colouring, saccharin and starch. Many of those involved are not well trained, many are semi-literate and possibly employ the trial-and-error approach to production. They have no brand pride; they revel in faking other people’s popular brands.

    Serious countries take the food and drug sector very seriously because fake products in the sector can take people’s lives.  For instance, a pregnant woman who ingests any fake or adulterated drugs or food endangers both her life and that of her baby.  Children are known to have died in large numbers due to fake baby food or drugs like cough syrup.  The bad effects of fake and adulterated foods and drugs are unquantifiable.

    However, while we blame NAFDAC for some of the lapses that make these quacks thrive, we also know that there is a cocktail of quackery in the country: fake doctors, fake soldiers, fake journalists, fake police, fake schools, fake orphanages, fake lawyers, and quackery in almost all sectors in the country, which obviously points to a crassly dysfunctional system.

    If those quacks in Aba had products worth N750m, that means they have been long in the business of quackery. Why is it that NAFDAC, the Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON), the Department of State Services (DSS), and other relevant agencies did not bust them earlier?

    Read Also: Palliatives: NAFDAC slashes charges for MSMEs

    We wonder why NAFDAC does not do random searches in shops and supermarkets because those are the points of sale for those fake products. The criminals don’t supply straight to the consumers. Again, why does NAFDAC unilaterally close a market where other Nigerians doing their legitimate businesses earn their living just because some are dubious? That is impunity, and unjust.

    We commend NAFDAC for promising that the arrested suspects would be prosecuted, and for giving consumers clues to the identification of fake products, such as the quality of the packaging, spelling mistakes, unusual bottle shapes and the smell of the products. 

    We believe that the agency or the government should be concerned enough to pay for ‘whistle blowing’ services by people whose identity must be protected by the government to save them from the criminals. There must be incentives for citizens to report any fishy movements because these products are done in compounds where other people live. In this respect, the National Orientation Agency (NOA) has its job cut out for it.

    Again, many foreigners are in Nigeria, taking advantage of the weak institutions, and faking or importing fake and adulterated products. Some Chinese, Lebanese, Indians and other nationals allegedly hide in factories, and use Nigerians for production of such products.

    The Nigerian government must wake up and do due diligence diplomatically. Most of these foreigners invest hugely in technology used in faking products to the detriment of the people and the economy. Nigeria’s Ministry of Interior and Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment must do their work and get the bad ‘foreign investors’ arrested and prosecuted.

    Nigeria must be ready to invest in its citizens so that a valued sense of citizenship can propel a sense of patriotism to save lives. Communities can, in addition to agencies like NAFDAC and SON, monitor fake products marketing to save lives, and improve the economy when real manufacturers are able to sell their own products. Unfortunately, most of the fake products are consumed by those whose job is to stop them from thriving in the first place. We hope the arrested suspects would be prosecuted and severely punished to serve as a deterrent.

  • ‘How NAFDAC paid about N4billion debt in one year’

    The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) paid off an outstanding debt of about N4 billion and cleared over 6,000 applications within 12 months, its Director General Prof. (Mrs.) Mojisola Adeyeye has stated.

    She said the agency achieved the feat due to the spirit of transparency and accountability of the current administration.

    Between November 2017 and November 2018, the agency embarked on restructuring, which covered all the key departments to clear off all the mess inherited by Adeyeye, who was appointed on November 3, 2017 by President Muhammadu Buhari.

    Adeyeye, who took over from Professor Paul Orhii as Director General of NAFDAC, is Professor of Pharmaceutics and Manufacturing for 21 years at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, United States of America.

    Speaking at a one-day interactive meeting with stakeholders from South West Zone on NAFDAC Regulated Products at House of Chiefs,Parliament Building, Secretariat, Ibadan, Adeyeye on Tuesday reiterated commitment of the agency to continue to strengthen its regulatory framework to enhance the efficiency and improve its service delivery  to all its stakeholders.

    Read Also: NAFDAC seizes N60m fake drugs

    The NAFDAC, who said the agency has a statutory responsibility to safeguard public health, stressed it had imbibed best international practices and aligned with global regulatory standards.

    She urged all stakeholders to adhere to agency’s laws and regulations.

    “We are appealing to the industry to support NAFDAC by adhering to the Agency’s laws and regulations.

    “These are enforced to ensure that operations and activities are in line with NAFDAC’s extant laws and regulations. Self-audit and regular reviews of product information and labels are encouraged.

    “Companies should ensure that they remain a robust system, which allows for effective monitoring and control of their products that are already in trade.

    “This is necessary for effective intervention in the event of unexpected product defects, which may necessitate immediate product recall.

    “The responsibility of ensuring the quality, safety and efficacy of regulated products does not lie solely with NAFDAC but with all stakeholders.”

  • NAFDAC blames high drug abuse on its removal from port

    The removal of the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) has been blamed for high rate of drug abuse in the country.

    The Director-General of NAFDAC, Professor Mojisola Adeyeye said the consequences of removing the agency that ought to scrutinize illicit drug importation at the port is the high rate of drug addiction among the country youth.

    The agency was removed from the port from 2011-2018.

    Adeyeye made the disclosure during an audience with the Chairman of Presidential Advisory Committee on Elimination of Drug Abuse, Brigadier-General Buba Marwa (rtd), and other members of the committee in her office in Abuja.

    She expressed sadness that two generations of Nigerian youths are being wiped out due to drug addiction.

    According to her, “When NAFDAC was removed from the port from 2011-2018, I asked myself when you remove an agency that is supposed to oversee the importation of illicit drug in the port, then we will get our answer and part of the answer we got is the destruction of Nigerian youths, during that period. If we plot the graph NAFDAC not being at the port in 2011 -2018, we would find out that during that period when NAFDAC was not at the port, the drug addiction among our youths increased. But thank God President Muhammadu Buhari in 2018 reversed the trend by returning NAFDAC to the port and since we got there, there have been good changes”.

    Read Also: NAFDAC to destroy N198bn seized tramadol

    The NAFDAC boss therefore assured Nigerians that the agency is ready to work around the clock, in order to intercept any illegal drugs being imported into the country,  “For instance in September 2018, I got a note that 31 containers of tramadol were coming into Nigeria, I thought it was a fluke but after a thorough investigations I discovered it was true, so we started monitoring the containers and the ships, these containers were labeled bounded terminals, which means we were not supposed to have seen it at first, we were able to intercept 21 containers, and out of the 21 containers only 2 has building materials, but all of them were labeled building materials.

    “When they know that port was hot they started turning around the rest of the containers, they went to a West African country we waited for them there. That West African country took over the containers and the others started going to another West African country and our staff started tracking them online. They got to another West African country and that country sent them back to Singapore.  They are back now and we are going to impound the four containers. We are here because of our children”.

    She said all hands must be on desk to eliminate drug addiction among Nigerian youths, adding that “President Muhaamadu Buhari has taken it upon himself to eliminate drug abuse in Nigeria. We must have passion for what we are doing. I have said it many times, a country cannot be greater than its youths, and we have lost about two generations to drug addiction. We must fight for our children and for their future”.

    Earlier the Chairman of the Committee, Buba Marwa lamented the high rate of drug addiction among Nigerian youths adding that it is imperative for all stakeholders to fight the menace.

    “It is very sad that two generations of our youths are being wiped out, so we must do something urgent. And the President Muhammadu Buhari is really concern and he wants us to bring about solution to this terrible state of affairs in the country as far as drug addiction is concern”, he said.

  • Don’t criminalize drug users, says Aisha Buhari

    The wife of the president of Nigeria, Aisha Buhari on Thursday in Kano said that  society should not criminalize drug abusers, but should find solutions that will help them overcome the situation.

    Aisha who was represented by the wife of the Vice President, Mrs. Dolapo Osinbajo made the remarks during the official flag-off of Youth Against Drug Abuse (YADA) Campaign in Kano, organized by the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) in collaboration with Young Pharmacists Group(YPG) at the Coronation Hall, Government House, Kano.

    According to her, rather than isolating and discriminating drug abusers, the society should begin to look beyond the problem so as to get to the root of the matter and understand the main cause of the problem and address such problems for a lasting solution.

    Mrs. Buhari, however, decried the prevalence of drug abuse among youths which has prevented persons suffering from injuries and other illnesses to have access to drug such as tramadol, cough syrup and other strong pain killers as they have been banned by the government.

    She maintained that as a result of drug influence, the lives of many youths have been destroyed as they engage in all sort of heinous crimes which have led to their incarceration.

    According to her, “It must be understood that whatever crime someone under the influence of drugs commits can be traced to his or her addiction to such drugs.”

    She applauded the efforts of all government agencies in the fight against drug abuse in the country, noting that such efforts has led to the arrest and confiscation of 86 containers containing prohibited drugs which would have been released into the society.

    Also speaking, Kano state Governor, Dr. Abdullahi Umar Ganduje urged the youths to shun drug abuse and engage their time in meaningful ventures that can give them a better future.

    According to him, apart from rehabilitating the reformatory home in Kuru, his administration set up a taskforce comprising of all security agencies, including NAFDAC and the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) to fight the drug abuse among youths and children in the state.

    Read Also: Aisha Buhari to women: vote Buhari again

    Also speaking, the Emir of Kano, His Highness, Muhammad Sanusi 11, called on government at all levels to join forces in fighting drug abuse, which he said has  negative impacts on the socity, particularly, among youths.

    According to the Royal Father, it has become a rule in his Emirate that any member of the Emirate Council must pass through drug test so as to ascertain the persons psychological competence.

    In her address, the  Director General, National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), Professor Mojisola Adeyeye says about 70 per cent of youths essentially, the young boys abuse illicit drugs in Kano.

    The DG NAFDAC disclosed the alarming figure Thursday while flagging off youth Against Drug Abuse Campaign, holding in Kano.

    Professor Adeyeye who posited that recent survey conducted revealed that prescription drug abuse is fast-emerging public health challenges especially in Northern Nigeria.

    The NAFDAC boss regretted that the young girls and women of childbearing age in Kano are not left out of the endemic nature of the hard drugs in Kano which she claimed many considered to overcome frustration.

    She called on family support to inculcate cultural and religion values on children in order to guide them from destructive path.

    She noted that with over 98 per cent Muslims population and rich culture which is not separated from Islam, Kano should take the front banner in campaign on the fight against drug abuse menace in Nigeria.

  • How I paid N3.2b inherited debt at NAFDAC – Adeyeye

    The Director General of National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), Prof. Mojisola Adeyeye on Friday revealed how she was able to turn around the fortune of the agency and pay off the N3.2 billion debt she inherited.

    Adeyeye who came into office a year ago also said under her watch, the agency has seized and destroyed N30 billion worth fake drugs in the last one year.

    NAFDAC DG who briefed Journalists on the occasion marking her one year in office on Friday in Abuja said that at the time of assuming office, there was no budgeting for the agency.

    She said, “I did not know that there was no directorate-focused budgeting before my assumption and that the agency had N3.2 billion debt. I met this big challenge with great resolve as p[art of quality management system that included fiscal and financial responsibility. I had to work with finance and accounts directorate for about three months from January-March 2018.”

    The result of the efforts, she said include, “reducing the debt profile from N3.2billion of the agency to zero as of November 20th 2018.”

    she also noted that the agency has been able to put in place financial sanity by stepping down all fictitious claims and also introducing budget discipline to all financial activities of the agency.

    Read Also: NAFDAC warns against consumption of puffer fish

    Besides, she also noted that the agency has been able to pay severance allowance of retired staff worth N14.246,499.00 million.

    this is as the agency has also recovered N106,590,298.52 million erroneously credited to another MDA in 2015.The agency she said also recoveredN533 million by the ports Inspection Directorate evaded administrative charges.

    Apart from sanitizing the agency, Prof. Adeyeye also disclosed that in the last one year, the agency has seized and destroyed substandard and falsified medicines including unwholesome foods and other unregulated products worth over N3billion within the last one year.

    She pointed out that the removal of NAFDAC from the ports from 2011 to 2018 worsened the problem of substandard and falsified medicines (SFs) and unwholesome foods in the country and portended real danger to the populace.

    NAFDAC boss also posited that part of her plan to eliminate fake and illicit drugs is to promote local manufacturing; something she admitted has been top on her mind.

    “This is to reverse the trend of 30 per cent locally manufactured drug products towards 70 per cent,” she pointed out.

    Adeyeye added that local manufacturing also ensures drug security, reduce unemployment and increases contribution of the pharmaceutical industry to the nation’s GDP.

    “It has been documented that most of the SFs are imported due to the fact that access and fastness to inspect local companies are quite spontaneous,” she stated.

    The DG also informed that since her assumption of office, the agency has intercepted 86 containers containing tramadol and other unregulated drug products.

    “These include 23 (40ft) containers recently examined and found to have been loaded with tramadol of various strengths from 120mg to 250mg and other unregistered pharmaceutical products that sre known to be injurious to the health of the public, most importantly our youth.

    “The Tramadol is estimated to be over six billion tablets. The worth of Tramadol alone on the street is estimated to be at about N193billio,” she explained.