NAFDAC partners NCTC to end drug abuse

The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) and National Counter-terrorism Centre (NCTC) have agreed to continue to work together to combat the menace of drug abuse in the country.

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This was disclosed during a courtesy call by the management of NAFDAC led by its director general, Professor Mojisola Adeyeye, to NCTC headquarters in Abuja with a view to enhancing and strengthening the already existing robust working partnership.

NAFDAC DG said that the purpose of the visit was to strengthen the working partnership between the two agencies which have similar interests including but not limited to the fight against drug abuse, chemical misuse and alcoholism which have been identified as major contributors to acts of terrorism. She expressed her agency’s readiness to work with the centre to achieve a common goal.

The NAFDAC boss also noted that the collaboration was very positive and recalled how she was told about a year into her first tenure as DG by someone in a privileged position in the society that there was an abuse of Tramadol.

She said her agency is now using what is called ‘’Track and Trace’’, using the traceability tool. “NAFDAC has so far been recognised as the leading agency in Africa in terms of use of bar coding to trace where the medicine goes from the manufacturer to the end user.

‘’unless the user is not on planet earth, we can trace it. We have global positioning systems that can pinpoint the medicine to the nearest location,’’ she added.

Professor Adeyeye in a statement by the Resident Media Consultant to NAFDAC, Sayo Akintola,  noted that it is so important because the use of narcotics can alter the minds of its users and can lead to extremism, terrorism, loss of lives and loss of livelihood.

While congratulating the national coordinator of NCTC for the monumental achievement in building this new centre, she said: “To me, this shows commitment to integration, We cannot work in silos. It is when we work together, that we bring agencies of government together and we get a lot of results.’’

She however pledged that the collaboration is guaranteed in in terms of NAFDAC’s commitment and for this centre in terms of research. She further added that, ‘’we can only do research in collaboration with other agencies or the academia which has been a major contributor to the growth of NAFDAC to higher grounds.’’

Wumi/Blueprint