VP Osinbajo orders NAFDAC to return to ports

Apparently embarrassed by stories of abuse of drugs, and importation of unwholesome food into the country, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo has directed the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) to return to the ports immediately.

NAFDAC said in a statement on Thursday that the order was to enable it work in collaboration with relevant ministries, departments and other agencies to effectively control importation of unregulated products, falsified and substandard drugs, unwholesome foods, narcotic drugs and hazardous chemical substances and foods.

“NAFDAC in collaboration with relevant Ministries, Departments and Agencies and with the active support of the Office of the National Security Adviser, the Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council, and the Ministry of Transport, has been returned to the seaports and borders to effectively control importation of unregulated products, falsified and substandard drugs, unwholesome foods, narcotic drugs and hazardous chemical substances and foods.

“NAFDAC received the notice on May 16, 2018, in a letter dated March 29, 2018, from the office of the Vice-President, as part of the PEBEC reforms,” the statement by the agency read in part.

Recall that NAFDAC Director-General (DG), Professor Mojisola Adeyeye, recently said that the rampant cases of drug abuse among Nigerian youths were partly due to the unlawful importation of certain banned substances.

Adeyeye, noting that thousands of Nigerians had died as a result of falsified and substandard medicines, had added that many were ill, most likely, due to unwholesome foods, drugs and abuse of narcotics and controlled substances, such as codeine, tramadol and pentazocine.

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She had claimed that the situation was worsened “partly due to the exclusion of NAFDAC from our ports since 2011. The recent documentary on codeine abuse brought more attention to the issue.”

On the order to return to ports, Adeyeye assured that she was going to work with the Nigeria Customs Service, the Nigerian Shippers’ Council and other sister agencies in ensuring that foods, drugs, chemicals and other NAFDAC regulated products that pose danger to Nigerians were controlled at the point of entry.

 

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