NAFDAC’s feat towards pretend medicine
The current disclosure by the Director-Common, Nationwide Company for Meals and Drug Administration and Management (NAFDAC), Prof. Mojisola Christianah Adeyeye, to the impact that the company has destroyed illicit medicine valued at over ₦1 trillion will not be solely alarming but additionally worrisome.
The train, which adopted an intensified nationwide enforcement towards substandard, falsified and harmful merchandise, resulting in mass arrests and prosecutions, additionally underscores the magnitude and severity of the proliferation of counterfeit medicine and unwholesome meals within the nation and its cataclysmic results on Nigerians and the nation’s pharmaceutical trade in addition to meals safety.
Talking throughout a current media briefing and parley in Lagos, Prof. Adeyeye stated the period of weak regulatory enforcement was over, saying the company now operates a risk-based, intelligence-driven enforcement regime designed to dismantle prison provide chains and maintain offenders accountable by means of the courts.
In line with the NAFDAC boss, enforcement has moved past routine inspections to strategic investigations, coordinated arrests and sustained prosecution, anchored on strengthened authorized frameworks and digital proof administration methods.
“Compliance is now not non-obligatory. Enforcement at the moment is intelligence-led, know-how enabled and prosecution targeted,” Adeyeye declared.
She disclosed that in 2025 alone, 114 suspects have been arrested nationwide, with 16 circumstances already referred for authorized motion, whereas a number of others stay below investigation.
One of the crucial important enforcement operations highlighted was the Open Drug Market (ODM) sanitisation train, described as probably the most coordinated crackdowns lately.
She famous that 5 circumstances are at present below energetic prosecution whereas 138 truckloads of substandard and falsified medicines have been seized. She stated the company additionally destroyed over ₦1 trillion value of faux medicine in April 2025.
NAFDAC stated the seized merchandise have been conclusively destroyed to forestall re-entry into circulation, sending a transparent warning to prison syndicates working inside Nigeria’s pharmaceutical provide chain.
“Illicit drug markets don’t have any secure haven below a contemporary regulatory system,” Adeyeye warned.
The company additionally disclosed that enforcement operations have expanded to sort out rising and unconventional threats, together with the ‘In-Name Pack’ phenomenon and on-line advertising of unregistered medicines.
These actions, NAFDAC stated, replicate its potential to adapt enforcement methods to digitally-enabled prison networks exploiting regulatory loopholes.
Prof. Adeyeye defined that enforcement success has been pushed by institutionalised collaboration with the Nigeria Customs Service, safety companies and environmental regulators, significantly at ports, airports and land borders.
Digital platforms comparable to PIDCARMS, NAPAMS and the NAFDAC Traceability Info System (NTIS) now help inspections, seizures and prosecution by offering traceable proof trails required for profitable courtroom actions.
NAFDAC stated a number of of those interventions have led to market seizures, facility closures and prison investigations, significantly at zonal and state ranges the place enforcement “battles are fought each day.”
Blueprint commends the NAFDAC for its dedication at eradicating substandard, falsified and harmful merchandise from Nigeria, significantly its enforcement operation throughout three main open drug markets in Onitsha, Aba, and Lagos the place it recorded the largest seizure within the company’s historical past – N1 trillion value of illicit medicine..
Given the deadly impact of counterfeit medicine and unwholesome meals, inflicting the premature loss of life of many individuals, we’re in sync with Adeyeye’s name on the Nationwide Meeting to “expedite the modification of the NAFDAC Act (NI LFN) and the Counterfeit and Pretend Medicine and Unwholesome Processed Meals C34 Act to incorporate life sentences and the loss of life penalty within the penalties for crimes dedicated below these Acts.”
The loss of life penalty for drug peddlers has turn into inevitable following the threat they pose to the lives and the precise killing of harmless shoppers and the operatives of the regulatory company. The haunting of Prof Dora Akunyili, who was the director-general of NAFDAC from 2001 to 2009, by drug cartels lends credence to this assertion. The incumbent additionally has her personal gory expertise: “I’ve two policemen dwelling in my home 24/7 in Abuja and Lagos. I don’t have a life. I can not go anyplace with out police, and to me, that isn’t my way of life. However I don’t have a selection as a result of we’ve bought to avoid wasting our nation. Nonetheless, I additionally use frequent sense.”
However, the company must be proactive reasonably than reactive. NAFDAC ought to enhance its intelligence gathering aimed toward nipping within the bud the availability chain of illict medicine and unwholesome meals. The company ought to intensify its sensitisation and consciousness marketing campaign within the media utilizing native languages to successfully drive house its messages and immediately join with the various peoples of Nigeria.
No efforts needs to be spared within the eradication of counterfeit medicine and unwholesome meals, together with the prescription of the loss of life penalty on prison components bent on undermining the well being and security of populace. That is important to revive belief within the merchandise consumed by Nigerians.