In a decisive move to tackle the proliferation of substandard drugs in Nigeria, the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) has proposed the death penalty for individuals involved in the distribution of fake medicines.
NAFDAC’s Director-General, Mojisola Adeyeye, emphasized that only severe penalties would deter counterfeit drug peddlers, whose actions contribute to preventable deaths, particularly among children. Speaking on Channels Television’s The Morning Brief on Friday, Adeyeye highlighted a case where laboratory tests on a suspiciously low-priced children’s medicine revealed it contained no active ingredients.
“Somebody bought children’s medicine for N13,000 or something like that; another person was selling about N3,000 in the same mall. That raised an alarm. Guess what? There was nothing inside that medicine when we tested it in our Kaduna lab. So, I want the death penalty,” she asserted.
She likened the sale of fake medicine to murder, stating, “You don’t need to put a gun on the head of a child before you kill that child. Just give that child bad medicine.”
To enforce stricter measures, Adeyeye stressed the need for collaboration with the judiciary and the National Assembly, pointing out that weak penalties encourage repeat offenses.
“You cannot fight substandard, falsified medicine in isolation. The agency can do as much as it can, but if there is no deterrent, there’s going to be a problem,” she said.
Highlighting the inadequacy of current penalties, she cited a case where an individual caught with 225mg of Tramadol—an amount potent enough to cause fatal overdoses—was sentenced to just five years in prison or a fine of N250,000.
“Who doesn’t know that that person will go to the ATM and get N250,000?” she questioned, adding that the judiciary must impose stronger penalties to curb drug counterfeiting effectively.
While reaffirming NAFDAC’s commitment to strengthening drug regulations, Adeyeye admitted that limited funding and staff shortages remain significant challenges. According to her, the agency operates with only 2,000 staff members nationwide.
Source: Swifteradio.com
