By Okechukwu Onuegbu
The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), on Monday, warned the public to stop buying drugs from unaccredited dealers to avoid consuming substandard, expired and adulterated medications.
The Director, NAFDAC South-East zone, Dr Martins Iluyomade stated this at Ogbogu (drugs) markets, Onitsha, Anambra State, while the team comprising medical experts, media, military and paramilitary officers were inspecting drug products to ascertain their validity and healthiness for human consumption.
"We are not only telling you to shine your eyes but to shine your body as well. Be careful when someone is selling a product at cheaper rate to you especially when you know that the original product should be very expensive due to dollars.
"Some of these substandard products when you buy them and consume, they will either damage your system leading to sicknesses or death or fail to heal you as expected. So try to purchase only from accredited dealers because the chances of them selling fake and substandard products are minimal. You know that if they do that there are chances that Pharmaceutical Council of Nigeria (PCN) will sanction them," he noted.
The team, which stormed and conducted checks around shops at victory line, Egbeigwe, Udoka line and many other sections of Ogbogu, took samples of the products discovered to be substandard or expired sealing shops and warehouses where they were discovered.
Some of the products, it was found, expired between 2019 to 2024, even as there were broken tablets, empty sealed cans and other products with labelling, among others.
According to Iluyomade, the exercise was part of their mandate and national assignment geared towards safeguarding the people health nationwide.
He said it was continuously holding across drugs markets in the zone and country at large, and expected to take them round Onitsha drug market in line with President Bola Ahmed Tinubu's administration efforts to ensure that people have value for thier money as well as enjoy healthy life.
The zonal Director warned the public to be weary of products they purchase and consume to avoid taken what could damage their cell or result to instant deaths, even as he assured that owners of sealed shops would be prosecuted in line with extant laws of the land.