NAFDAC goes hard on fake drug dealers

Trouble looms for some patent medicine dealers arrested in Delta state. Nemesis caught up with them after exposing members of the public to the dangers of consuming medicines whose quality, safety and efficacy cannot be guaranteed.

There is trouble if the saying that 'the greatest calamity that can befall a man is to engage in a weary labour and be caught.'

They must be gnashing their teeth in regret for commencing operation without following the laid down guidelines on the requirements for registration and licensing.

They actually took the registrar of the Council, Elijah N Mohammed, a pharmacist who came on board with zero tolerance to non registration of Pharmacists and patent medicine stores, and vowed to strengthen the administrative structure of the Council at the state and zonal offices to an enviable state.  

It was lamentation galore when officials of the Pharmacists Council of Nigeria[PCN] pounced on their premises and sealed up their shops that were scattered across eight towns in the state, including Asaba, Ugheli,Warri,Oleh, Ozoro,Ogwashi-ukwu, Kwale and Sapele.

Few weeks after they were apprehended, the Federal High Court in Asaba, the state capital, sentenced one Paul Osita to five years imprisonment for being in possession of fake anti-malaria drugs.

The culprit, a graduate of Economics from the University of Nigeria Nsukka[UNN], was arrested at his residence at Asaba by operatives of the National Agency For Food Drug Administration and drugs Control [NAFDAC]