In 2018, the National Agency for Food, Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) captured a container load of unregistered pharmaceutical products, including tramadol, at Apapa Port in Lagos.
Prof Mojisola Adeyeye, the agency’s Director-General, stated this on Monday in Abuja at a media conference to highlight the agency’s achievements in the field of food and drug administration.
She stated that the interception was in response to a Presidency intelligence warning that some unscrupulous importers were planning to transport down 31 filled containers of unlicensed pharmaceutical supplies from India to Nigeria.
She stated that NAFDAC collaborated with the Nigeria Customs Service, which paid off when 21 containers were finally discharged at the Apapa port in Lagos.
Adeyeye revealed that while all of the containers were labeled as containing building materials, only two of them were determined to contain building materials after an inspection of the contents.
According to Adeyeye, four of the containers were diverted to Ghana’s Tema Port but were later returned to Cotonou after encountering resistance from the Ghana Food and Drug Agency following NAFDAC notification to the agency.
She stated that NAFDAC worked with the Nigerian Ambassador to the Republic of Benin to ensure that five of the containers that arrived at the country’s port were detained at NAFDAC’s request.
According to the NAFDAC director, the agency has also received a ruling that these containers can be destroyed in the Republic of Benin.
According to her, the administration of the Republic of Benin eventually decided to work with their Nigerian counterpart to destroy the containers in Cotonou.
She stated that the unregistered pharmaceutical items, as well as tramadol in various dosages in enormous boxes, will be destroyed in December 2022 and that the products were valued at N95 billion.
