NAFDAC destroys N16bn unwholesome, expired products

The South West zone of the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), yesterday destroyed unwholesome and expired products worth N16 billion seized at different times.

The destruction was carried out at the Oke-Diya dumpsite, Sagamu, Ogun State.

The director of the South West zone of the agency, Mrs Roseline Ajayi, said the destruction exercise was crucial to show the transparency with which she conducts her activities, including enforcement.

She said the exercise was to ensure that unwholesome, substandard and falsified products, which have been seized, did not get re-injected into the system.

She also said the purpose was to show all stakeholders that items seized were not diverted by officers of the agency for personal use as some people claimed.

The director-general of the NAFDAC, Prof Christiana Adeyeye, represented by the Director of Investigation and Enforcement, Francis Ononiwu, said the products destroyed during the exercise included substandard and falsified medical products, unwholesome processed food products, food additives, unsafe cosmetics, and other expired products seized by the agency from manufacturers, importers and distributors.

She said the organisation, with the help and dedication of officers in the investigation and enforcement directorate, engaged in over 50 raids on hawkers of drugs across the federation.

“Products peddled by these drug hawkers, including, Codeine cough syrups and other narcotic drugs, anti-malaria, aphrodisiacs, analgesics, antibiotics worth over eight million naira, were confiscated and 66 arrests made,” she noted.