The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) has issued a warning against obstructing its personnel during enforcement operations targeting substandard drugs and counterfeit goods.
Mr. Shaba Mohammed, Director of Investigation and Enforcement at NAFDAC, made this statement in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Wednesday in Abuja.
Mohammed, who also chairs the Federal Task Force on Fake and Counterfeit Products, mentioned that some drug hawkers and touts who attacked the agency’s enforcement team in February have been arraigned in court.
He noted that several individuals involved in the attack are currently on trial before Justice Joyce Abdulmalik of the Federal High Court, Abuja. He added that these arraignments would serve as a deterrent to others with similar intentions.
“Those arraigned recently in court are part of those who attacked NAFDAC officials while on enforcement duty some months ago.
“Arraigning them in court is to pay for their sins, this is also to advise the public to desist from attacking NAFDAC staff while on duty’’, he said.
“I will not say there are no counterfeit products in circulation. But such product are brought into the country by unscrupulous elements who do not mean well for the country’’, he said.
He said such criminals who bring in counterfeit drugs used hawkers to push them into circulation, adding that NAFDAC will not stop arresting hawkers until the whole system is sanitised.
The director said arresting the hawkers would help NAFDAC track the sources of counterfeit products, whether imported or produced locally.
“The public should support NAFDAC to sanitise the system. Anyone caught in such act will be prosecuted thoroughly because that is obstruction of Federal Government team in performing its jobs.
“Sales of drug in market places, hawking or in moving vehicle is actually prohibited by NAFDAC law.
“This is regarded as a criminal act and that is why we are prosecuting those that have committed crime against NAFDAC act’’, he said.
He stated that as the Director of Investigation and Enforcement at NAFDAC, he would collaborate closely with the Federal Task Force, which includes other relevant agencies, to eliminate counterfeit drugs and goods from the country.
Mohammed mentioned that the soon-to-be-inaugurated team would include organizations such as the Pharmacist Council of Nigeria, the Customs Service, and the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Council (FCCPC).
One of the strategies the task force will employ to combat fake drugs is to monitor entry points into the country to intercept all counterfeit products.
“We will also be using Post Marketing Surveillance, whose officials would function like undercover agents,” he said.