•Unsuspecting Nigerians buying death with their money as fake products flood markets, stores
By Henry Umahi
Someone recently said that “to buy drink now in Nigeria is like buying death.” He was referring to the deluge of fake drinks of various brands in the market.
Indeed, fake, adulterated, substandard, expired and unwholesome processed products are everywhere in the country. While some are locally manufactured, some are imported. They are sold in open markets and supermarkets. So, people are eating, drinking and dying.
The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), last Monday in Abuja, sealed a Chinese supermarket for allegedly selling goods labelled in Chinese language without proper notification.
The agency’s director of investigation and enforcement, Shaba Mohammed, told newsmen that the agency got “credible information” about the supermarket.
According to him, the information was that all the items being sold at the supermarket were labelled in Chinese language, which violated NAFDAC’s regulations. He said that, upon getting the information, NAFDAC quickly swung into action to unravel the situation.
Mohammed, who is also the chairman, Federal Task Force on Counterfeit, Fake Drugs and Unwholesome Processed Foods with the agency, said: “The supermarket was sealed for violating NAFDAC regulations; investigation will surely go on about this supermarket; we will also need to go to its warehouse in order to stop them from selling some products.
“The whole information about this supermarket just got to us; if we had known the information from the beginning, we would have taken regulatory action we just took against it now.
“Selling items in foreign language in a country is a violation of our law; if you must sell anything either in Arabic, Chinese and French, you must have English translation of it.
“More than 90 per cent of the goods sold in the supermarket are in Chinese. You might find some Nigerians patronising the supermarket; they should be able to read about some of the items on the shelves.
“Some of these items have also expired. Even if they are given global listing to import, they ought to be in English language.
“This supermarket cannot present to NAFDAC a document through which the items were approved in foreign language.
“This is not acceptable and that is why we have to seal the supermarket; we will invite the owner for further investigation before we can conclude the case.
“It is not every case we charge to court; we will take regulatory action against the supermarket, which may be an administrative action.
“Before any certification is given by NAFDAC, it would have visited the site/shop for goods storage and distribution practice.
“NAFDAC, upon its visit, will ensure that the facilities are in accordance with NAFDAC regulations.
“NAFDAC will not see all these items at the port with every description in foreign language and allow them in; they would have been intercepted immediately.”
In December 2024, NAFDAC said it arrested the owner of a pharmaceutical company for alleged manufacture of substandard Amoxycillin. The Director-General of NAFDAC, Prof. Mojisola Adeyeye, said the agency took the step following reports of serious adverse drug reactions being experienced by patients that took the medication across the country.
She said that an alert had been placed against the product on December 3, 2024: “Alert on the recall of Deekins – amoxycilin -500 capsule batch 4c639001 has been placed. Healthcare professionals and consumers are advised to report any suspicion of substandard and falsified medicines to the nearest NAFDAC office, NAFDAC on 0800-162-3322 or via email:
“Similarly, healthcare professionals and patients are also encouraged to report adverse events or side effects related to the use of the medicinal product to the nearest NAFDAC office, or through the use of the e-reporting platforms available on the NAFDAC website www.nafdac.gov.ng or via the Med-safety application available for download on android.”
She lamented that NAFDAC was experiencing acute shortage of personnel to effectively carry out its mandate.
In July 2024, NAFDAC sealed about 100 shops in Ogbete Main Market, Enugu, Enugu State, for allegedly dealing in fake alcoholic beverages. According to the agency, it also confiscated a truckload of adulterated products as well as arrested four traders.
The agency’s director, South-East Zone, Mr. Martins Iluyomade, said: “We stormed the popular Ogbete Main Market, Enugu, in Enugu State, since Friday and have shut down 100 shops, which have been identified for selling fake alcoholic beverages. Arrests were made and the suspects are currently in custody.
“This fake wine and alcoholic beverages are being sold to unsuspected customers and the general public but we are determined to rid the market of these unwholesome products.”
In May 2024, NAFDAC announced it arrested a business executive for revalidating expired cosmetics in Lagos State. He was allegedly found altering expiration dates on cosmetics
The agency stated on its X handle:
“Precious Jewel Int’l Nigeria Limited was found altering expiration dates on products such as White Xpress Cream, Silka B Cream, Bond’s Magic Powder, Bio-Skin Lightening Lotion, Classic Hair System Fair Spotless Cleanser, Oil-Free Acne Control Oil, and Vaseline Blue Seal.
“Packaging materials, sealing machines, and other tools used for this illegal activity were seized from the facility.”
It added that the owner attempted to escape upon the arrival of NAFDAC officers but was tracked down and arrested, stressing that he would be prosecuted.
In May last year, the agency disclosed that it shut three shops and raided others during a clampdown on the sale of unregistered brands of cosmetics in Lagos State. The action followed the complaint from the trademark holder.
In the same period, NAFDAC arrested drug hawkers and seized drugs worth N50 million in Apapa, Lagos State. The agency’s investigation and enforcement directorate seized the items during a targeted raid on drug hawkers. The seized products included aphrodisiacs, known as ‘man power’ in local parlance, among others.
In a post on its official X handle, the agency stated: “A wide range of illicit drugs were confiscated, including aphrodisiacs, narcotic substances (including tramadol), antibiotics, and over-the-counter medications.
“The individuals arrested will be prosecuted accordingly, and the confiscated drugs are slated for destruction.”
Last year, NAFDAC informed Nigerians that it shut down 10 unregistered bakeries and eight table water factories in Bonny Local Government Area of Rivers State. It noted during a three-day operation the proliferation of fake and unwholesome production going on in the state.
The agency stated: ‘The operation was prompted by meticulous investigations, surveillance and consumer complaints regarding substandard products in the area. Many of the bakeries lacked proper registration with NAFDAC, while others had expired licenses or had relocated without notifying the agency.”
In February last year, NAFDAC arrested some persons when it raided some factories producing alcohol and beverages in Jos, Plateau State.
Giving an account of its activities in the last couple of months, NAFDAC, in December 2024, announced that it destroyed over N120bn worth of seized products from July to December 2024, in the six geo-political zones and the Federal Capital Territory.
A Yuletide message of the DG of NAFDAC, Prof. Adeyeye, signed by the agency’s resident media consultant, Sayo Akintola, stated: “Officials of the agency’s Investigation and Enforcement Directorate, Pharmacovigilance Directorate and Post-Marketing Surveillance Directorate are jointly on the field mopping up falsified medicines, fake wines and drinks and unwholesome food products that could endanger the health of the people during the festive season.
“The agency had stormed supermarkets in the big cities across the country such as Lagos, Port Harcourt, Aba, Ibadan, Kaduna and the FCT, to apprehend manufacturers and merchants of fake drugs and unwholesome foods, while products running into billions of naira have been confiscated in the last three months of renewed enforcement.
“On Wednesday, December 11, 2024, the agency destroyed expired, unregistered drugs worth N11bn in Ibadan, Oyo State. In November, the agency seized N300m worth of fake medicines during a raid of Tyre Village, Trade Fair Complex, Lagos State. Officers of the agency also busted counterfeit alcohol packaging centres and seized items worth N2bn in Lagos. This followed reports of illegal revalidation of expired alcoholic beverages at the Trade Fair Complex in Lagos.
“As the mop-up operation was going on in the FCT and Nasarawa State, NAFDAC was carrying out a two-day operation in the Aba market on December 16 and 17, 2024. During the operation, the agency uncovered large-scale production and distribution of fake and expired goods, including beverages, carbonated drinks, wines, spirits, vegetable oils, and revalidated food items such as noodles, powdered milk, and yoghurt with a market value of N5bn.
“The agency, on Wednesday, December 11, 2024, also destroyed expired, unregistered, counterfeit, and smuggled products valued at N10,991,458,374.60.
“In total, over N120bn worth of seized products were destroyed by the agency in six months (July-December) in the six geo-political zones and FCT.”
The DG stated that the agency would not rest on its oars until the merchants of death are forced out of operation, warning that the agency would make it hard for them to operate freely and endanger the health of innocent consumers. The coming year will be tough for the people that prioritise money over the well-being of their fellow human beings by compromising quality of medicines and food products in the country.”
And as survival becomes more difficult with each passing day, some people have come up with a “clever” idea to save time and kerosene/gas when cooking. According to a report, “for many households and restaurants, using paracetamol is the fastest way to prepare meat. It saves gas, kerosene or firewood. And costs much less, N200 for one sachet of 12 tablets, and each tablet can cause a pot-full of meat to cook soft within few minutes. It’s an amazing discovery, or so it seems. But what they don’t know is that as much as they are quickening the amount of time it takes to cook, they are also quickening their days on earth.”
Experts say those eating meat prepared with analgesic are dying slowly because, when cooked, it destroys the kidney or liver.
“When paracetamol is used in cooking, it loses the pain killer property and becomes highly acidic and dangerous for human consumption,” the report said.
Perhaps, this is one of the reasons kidneys are packing up in Nigeria, just like that, as late Afrobeat deity, Fela Anikulapo, would say.
It was gathered that more than 100,000 cases of kidney disease are recorded per year in Nigeria.
Meanwhile, Prof Mojisola Adeyeye has expressed hope with regards to the war against counterfeit products in Nigeria. She said: “We are winning already. We cannot win overnight. First of all, substandard medicines are global. So, it is not just in Nigeria. It is all over; it is that it is higher in Africa than in other continents because we look forward to getting medicines from Asia, China, or India, whereas we are supposed to be thinking of making more medicines in our countries.
“So, winning the war is not a sprint, it is a marathon. We just want to make sure that we decrease as much as possible the prevalence of medicines that are bad in the country; we want to make sure that it goes down to less than five per cent.
“Right now, it is about 12 per cent which is still not good enough, but it is better than 17 per cent or 40 per cent. It used to be like 40 per cent years ago before my time, then they started decreasing it.”