NAFDAC has issued a stern warning against hindering or obstructing its officials while they conduct enforcement activities aimed at combating counterfeit products and substandard drugs, emphasizing the importance of unhindered operations to ensure public safety and health.
On Wednesday in Abuja, Shaba Mohammed, the Director of Investigation and Enforcement at NAFDAC, cautioned against interfering with NAFDAC officials during enforcement operations in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), emphasizing the need for unrestricted execution of their duties to protect public health and safety.
Shaba Mohammed, Director of Investigation and Enforcement at NAFDAC and Chairman of the Federal Task Force on Fake and Counterfeit Products, announced that individuals involved in attacking NAFDAC’s enforcement team in February have been taken to court.
He revealed that some of the attackers are currently facing trial before Justice Joyce Abdulmalik of the Federal High Court in Abuja, emphasizing that these legal actions will serve as a warning to others who might consider obstructing NAFDAC’s enforcement efforts in the future.
“Those arraigned recently in the court are part of those who attacked NAFDAC officials while on enforcement duty some months ago.
“Arraigning them in court is to pay for their sins, this is also to advise the public to desist from attacking NAFDAC staff while on duty’’, he said.
“I will not say there are no counterfeit products in circulation. But such products are brought into the country by unscrupulous elements who do not mean well for the country’’, he said.
Shaba Mohammed emphasized that counterfeit drug peddlers often employ hawkers to distribute their fake products, and NAFDAC will continue to apprehend these hawkers until the entire system is rid of criminal elements.
He explained that arresting hawkers is a crucial step in tracing the origins of counterfeit goods, whether they are imported or produced domestically, allowing NAFDAC to disrupt the supply chain and bring the perpetrators to justice.
“The public should support NAFDAC to sanitise the system. Anyone caught in such an act will be prosecuted thoroughly because that is obstruction of Federal Government team in performing its jobs.
“Sales of drugs in marketplaces, hawking or in moving vehicles is actually prohibited by NAFDAC law.
“This is regarded as a criminal act and that is why we are prosecuting those that have committed crime against NAFDAC act’’, he stated.
As the Director of Investigation and Enforcement at NAFDAC, Shaba Mohammed pledged to collaborate closely with the Federal Task Force, a multi-agency team comprising organizations such as the Pharmacist Council of Nigeria, Nigeria Customs Service, and Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Council (FCCPC), to combat and eliminate counterfeit drugs and goods from the country. This joint effort aims to strengthen enforcement and protect public health and safety.
Shaba Mohammed revealed that the Federal Task Force plans to implement a key strategy to prevent counterfeit drugs from entering the country by deploying personnel to strategic points of entry, enabling them to intercept and seize fake products before they can circulate in the market, thereby safeguarding public health and well-being.
“We will also be using Post Marketing Surveillance, whose officials would function like undercover agents,” he added.
