The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) has advised against obstructing its workers while conducting enforcement operations against substandard medications and counterfeit items.
Mr. Shaba Mohammed, Director of Investigation and Enforcement at NAFDAC, issued the warning during an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Wednesday.
Mohammed, also the Chairman of the Federal Task Force on Fake and Counterfeit Products, stated that some of the drug hawkers and touts who attacked the agency’s enforcement team in February have been charged in court.
He said some of those engaged in the attack were on trial before Justice Joyce Abdulmalik of the Federal High Court in Abuja, and that the arraignment would serve as a deterrent to others with similar intents.
“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 products are brought into the country by unscrupulous elements who do not mean well for the country’’, he said.
He stated that criminals who bring in counterfeit medications use hawkers to get them into circulation and that NAFDAC will not stop arresting hawkers until the entire system is sanitised.
The director stated that detaining the hawkers would assist NAFDAC in tracking down the sources of counterfeit products, whether imported or made locally.
“The public should support NAFDAC to sanitise the system. Anyone caught in such an act will be thoroughly prosecuted because that is obstruction of the Federal Government team in performing its jobs.
“Sales of drugs in market places, hawking, or in moving vehicles are actually prohibited by NAFDAC law.
“This is regarded as a criminal act, and that is why we are prosecuting those who have committed crimes against the 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 allied agencies, to rid the country of counterfeit pharmaceuticals and goods.
Mohammed named some of the entities on the upcoming team, including the Pharmacist Council of Nigeria, the Customs Service, and the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Council (FCCPC).
He stated that one of the techniques the taskforce would employ to keep phoney pharmaceuticals out of the country is to staff points of entry into the country to intercept all counterfeit goods.
“We will also be using Post Marketing Surveillance, whose officials would function like undercover agents,” he said.
