The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) has blamed “cabals” at the Nigerian ports as being responsible for the smuggling in of fake and substandard drugs stating that the cabal came into place after the NAFDAC was taken out from the ports between 2011 and 2016.
“Let us look at our porous borders, we are surrounded by six countries and there is no guard in terms of regulation of the border,” she said.
“From 2011 to May 2016, NAFDAC was removed from the ports. We are supposed to be controlling and regulating what is imported or exported; seven years and cabals were formed.
“We cannot undo the cabals overnight and this is why it has been extremely challenging in the last three and a half years. The federal task force is domiciled in NAFDAC and we are putting a lot of monies on enforcement.
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“We went straight into the heart of the problem which is China and India. Before, there were loopholes in terms of testing products that come into our country
“We have pegged that and decreased significantly the number of fake products coming into the country, over 95 percent of products we import are from China and India.
“We read them the riot act and we have gotten so much success in terms of things coming in.
“However, we still have a lot of work to do, a regulatory agency has to use tools, it is vehicles that we will use to run after drug smugglers.”
Adeyeye further stated that NAFDAC is in need of additional personnel at the borders to tackle the importation of fake drugs into the country.
The Chairman of the committee, Tanko Sununu, directed NAFDAC to embark on nationwide market surveillance to tackle fake drugs.
“When last did NAFDAC carry out mark surveillance nationwide… 2012 is too long, NAFDAC has the right to walk into any shop, pick any product and subject it to study,” he said.
