The National Agency For Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) on Saturday called for the establishment of a Coordinated Warehouse Centre (CWC) in Aba for proper regulation of drug distribution, as it evacuates 140 tons of Substandard and Falsified (SF) medicine.
New Telegraph reports that for the past one week, NAFDAC in collaboration with other security operatives have uncovered some hidden secret warehouses in Aba during an operation that aims to get rid of substandard and falsified drugs within the system.
Addressing newsmen after the discovery of another concealed warehouse for SF at massive buildings, No 269 Faulks Road Aba, close to the Ariaria International Market, Pharmacist Omoyeni Babatunji, Deputy Director, in charge of Investigation and Enforcement, NAFDAC Federal Taskforce said that a CWC will provide a solution to the disorderly chain of movement of medicine in Aba.
Answering more questions on the establishment of CWC, Babatunji explained that NAFDAC in Nigeria now is on Maturity Level Three (ML3) of the World Health Organization (WHO), and its current activity is a drive towards the achievement of CWCs.
He stressed that all the activities of NAFDAC are derived from the global benchmarking tools and regulatory activities and the CWC System is part of it so that the agency can regulate and control those drugs.
Babatunji said that so far, Nigeria already has one CWC in Kano State and that NAFDAC has been engaging with state governors of Abia and Anambra where those centres are located and are pushing for the establishment of the CWC warehouse system.
He said that so far in the Aba operation, NAFDAC has discovered about 178 different SF and has transported 14 (10 tons) trucks full of expired and falsified products to its warehouse in Agulu, Anambra State, but this could increase as long as more discoveries are made.
Babatunji, who stressed that the operation is simultaneously ongoing in Idumata market, Lagos, Bridge Head Market (Ogbo Ogwu) Onitsha and Ariaria Aba and its environs, said that nobody can put a price on what has been discovered so far as the management will come up with the summary of all its activities in due course.
Also speaking, Pharmacist Luis Madubuata, a Deputy Director with NAFDAC, said that what has been discovered in Aba so far is disturbing and horrifying.
Speaking specifically on the discovery at 269 Faulks Road, Madubuata said, “Well, this is what I will call a warehouse. It is both a warehouse and a living space. But what we are seeing here is quite horrifying.
“We have a stockpile of expired pharmaceuticals ranging from what we call nutraceuticals, vitamins and supplements, and core ethical pharmaceutical products.
“We actually got here because of the collaborative operation that is going on in Aba between other security agencies.
“So through intelligence, we got to know that there is another place here where these expired products are being re-labelled and sent into the market and are stocked. And that is why we came here and you have seen what we also saw.”
When asked if an arrest was made, Madubuata said, “For now, no arrests have been made because, by the time we came in here, from the evidence we could see, we saw that people just vacated the house with their refrigerator and other electronic gadgets still switched on. But I know that certainly the police force will do their work.”
