The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) has criticized the National Agency for Food and Drugs Administration and Control (NAFDAC) for its approach to combating counterfeit drugs in Anambra, particularly at the popular Ogbo Ogwu market.
IPOB argued that NAFDAC’s enforcement tactics are ineffective and alleged that its officials looted goods during a midnight raid at the market, situated in the bustling commercial city of Onitsha.
The group alleged that officials of the enforcement agency, who invaded the commercial hub in the bustling city of Onitsha at odd hours, blocked all CCTV cameras before breaking into shops and carting away goods.
Condemning this operation, IPOB’s Media and Publicity Secretary, Emma Powerful, through a statement issued on Thursday, stated that NAFDAC conducted this exercise and sealed the market under the guise of searching for fake drugs.
While demanding answers on how the agency determined the seized goods were fake, Powerful noted that NAFDAC’s unjust sealing of the market has affected innocent traders who know nothing about the situation.
He further called on NAFDAC to return the allegedly looted genuine goods and urged the agency to establish offices within drug markets to properly oversee the distribution of pharmaceuticals.
According to the statement, “IPOB condemns the peddlers of fake drugs. At the same time, we condemn the criminal raids by NAFDAC on people’s shops in their absence while blackmailing all the traders as dealers of fake drugs”
“The action of blocking the surveillance cameras with black nylon bags is a criminal act, and in every shop at the market the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control broke into people’s stores and shops”
“This criminal activity by the notorious NAFDAC officers was conducted in the middle of the night. NAFDAC looted people’s shops in Onitsha and branded all the drugs they carted away as fake drugs without showing the evidence that the drugs were indeed fake.”
“The questions that NAFDAC must answer are: Why raid people’s shops in the middle of the night in the absence of the owners? Why did NAFDAC criminal officers block the cameras in people’s shops in the market while conducting those raids?
“IPOB does not encourage or support the inimical activities of fake drugs peddlers in the Onitsha market, but NAFDAC must apply citizens’ rights, decorum, and professionalism and not act like a rogue agency”
“The Nigerian government agencies always apply a heavy-hand approach at any given opportunity against the Ndigbo and the carrot approach when dealing with other ethnic groups”
“NAFDAC should do well to return the genuine goods their rogue staff looted from the owners at Onitsha’s Head Bridge Drugs market or Ogbo Ogwu.”