Posted by By Chinyere Okoye on
National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), yesterday morning closed down the sprawling Onitsha Bridge Head Drug Market, in a pre-dawn operation involving a combined detachment of soldiers and policemen.
National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), yesterday morning closed down the sprawling Onitsha Bridge Head Drug Market, in a pre-dawn operation involving a combined detachment of soldiers and policemen.
The market, consisting of over 2,500 drug shops, was cordoned-off before the traders arrived.
Speaking on behalf of the Director-General of NAFDAC, Professor Dora Akunyili, NAFDAC's Director of Enforcement, Pharmacist Dioka Ejionueme, who led the operation, said the closure became inevitable, to check the market's increasing danger to public health.
In the statement by the Agency's Head of Information, Mr Abubakar Jimoh, Ejionueme said the Director-General presented to the public in September 2006, results of "The Study of the Present Level of Fake/Counterfeit Medicines in Nigeria, " which showed that the level of counterfeit drugs in circulation has dropped to an average of 16.7 per cent, whereas the level in Onitsha was found to be above 40 per cent.
According to the Director, the national average would have been less than 10 per cent, but for the high level of faking/counterfeiting in Onitsha.
It will be recalled that in June 2006, NAFDAC officials on enforcement operations at the Market were violently attacked, with six of their vehicles damaged by the traders who resisted the Agency's bid to remove their fake drugs from the market.
Governor Peter Obi of Anambra State intervened, by offering to sanitise the market and pleaded for time to do so.
NAFDAC investigations and continuous monitoring showed that the situation in the market has progressively worsened since June 2006, adding that it took several weeks of meticulous planning by NAFDAC and security agencies to effect the closure.
Ejionueme, who is also Chairman, Federal Task Force on Counterfeit and Fake Drugs, said the market will remain closed until the Agency screens it thoroughly, interrogates key officials of the market union, removes offensive products from the market and ensures that traders are ready to stop flooding the market with fake and counterfeit drugs.
During the period of the closure, there will be no movement of any drug in and out of the market by the traders and their clients.
The traders will be allowed into the market only in company of NAFDAC officials during the 'line' by 'line' screening of particular lines/streets on designated days, as will be communicated to union officials.