Nigeria’s National Agency for Drugs and Food Control Administration, NAFDAC, has vowed not to allow fake COVID-19 Vaccines into the country.
The Director-General of NAFDAC, Professor Mojisola Christiana Adeyeye made the pledge during a courtesy call on the Acting Chairman of the Kano State Consumer Protection Council, KACPC in his office.
She said the agency will not relent on its mandate to safeguard the lives of Nigerian citizens, including ensuring that they do not get a fake version of any of the Covid-19 vaccines.
“What is alleged coming from China as fake Covid-19 Vaccine, Interpol is working on it already. So, they may think they are not been watched but they are being watched. We are looking at all corners to ensure that the fake Covid-19 vaccine doesn’t enter Nigeria. If it eventually enters our country we will go after them, we will destroy what they have as the first thing and then sanction them.”
“The NCDC are there to manage cases of the Covid-19 Pandemic but it is NAFDAC that is mandated to control the distribution of where drugs go and we look at drugs from the perspective of quality,” said NAFDAC Director-General.
Professors Mojisola General commended the Kano State Consumer Protection Council, KSCPC for its dogged fight against fake drugs and unwholesome foods in order to safeguard the lives of people in the state.
The NAFDAC boss also inspected a store where confiscated fake drugs running into hundreds of millions of Naira were kept, at the Bompai industrial layout of the ancient city, awaiting destruction.
She said the collaborative effort made so far by the KSCPC to stem the tide of fake drugs consumption in the state, which is allowed by the nation’s law, the T34, is marvellous and encouraging since NAFDAC cannot cover everywhere in the country.
Professor Adeyeye, then urged states across the federation to emulate the Kano state and constitute a consumer protection agency to enhance the continuous war against fake drugs in the country.
“With what we have seen here and all these seizures, the agency is doing marvellous work. This is what all states in the federation should be doing because NAFDAC cannot have its eyes all over the place,” she stated.
The Acting Chairman of the KSCPC who also doubles as the MD of the Kano State Road and Traffic Agency, KAROTA, Baffa Dan Agundi said the seized drugs will soon be destroyed, having gone through all legal processes, obtained necessary documents and authority to carry out the exercise.
“We have possessed all the needed warrant and documents on the seized items we are now waiting to burn them,’ said Dan Agundi
It would be recalled that in February this year, the KSCPC in a single day operation, seized over 200 million naira worth of fake and expired drugs in the state.
PIAK
