The Director General of the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control, NAFDAC, Prof. Mojisola Adeyeye has described many hawkers of drugs in Nigeria as merchants of death.
She lamented that the menace of drug hawking poses a serious challenge to the healthcare delivery system in the country which underscored NAFDAC’s resolute determination to totally eradicate the illicit trade.
Prof. Adeyeye made this known on Monday while declaring open a one-day North Central Zone Media Sensitization Workshop on Dangers of Drug Hawking and Ripening of Fruits with Calcium Carbide organised for the Association of Nigeria Health Journalists, ANHJ, in Lafia.
Represented by the Director of Chemical Evaluation and Research, Dr. Leonard Omokpariola, Prof. Adeyeye pointed out that “most of the drugs sold by the illiterate and semi-literate drug hawkers are counterfeit, substandard or expired, and therefore do not meet the quality, safety and efficacy requirement of regulated medicines.
“So many drug hawkers are knowingly or unknowingly merchants of death who expose essential and life saving medicines to the vagaries of inclement weather which degrade the active ingredients of the medicine and turn them to poisons thus endangering human lives.”
The Director General who also warned Nigerians against the consumption of fruits ripened with calcium carbide noted that the development “is another public challenge facing us today and the Agency has deployed a multifaceted approach to tackle the menace.”
She warned that the consumption of fruits ripened with carbide could cause “cancer, heart, kidney and liver failure. It may also cause frequent thirst, irritation in mouth and nose, weakness, permanent skin damage, difficulty in swallowing, vomiting, skin ulcer and so forth.”
She also pointed out that the Agency had observed that bulk industrial food or ingredients that were not in the retail pack were being sold illegally in markets. “These bulk items are openly displayed and measured to unassuming buyers with little or no care from contamination.”
While assuring that the agency was tackling the unacceptable marketplace practice, Prof. Adeyeye advised the public to desist from buying “dangerous non-retailed packed items from the market to prevent the risk of taking contaminated, substandard, expired and adulterated food or food fraud with grave health implications.”
Earlier, the President of ANHJ, Mr. Hassan Zaggi who commended NAFDAC for organising the worship urged Journalists to lead the campaign to alert Nigerians of the untoward activities that endanger their health.
The worship featured presentations on the “Dangers of Artificially Ripened Fruits with Calcium Carbide”, “the Menace of Drug Hawking in Nigeria”, “Good Distribution Practices and Surveillance Activities Towards Prevention and Curbing of Substandard and Falsified Medicines in Nigeria” and “Influence of Mass Media Campaign on Health Behavioral Change.”
