NAFDAC takes over Ariaria drug Market’; Confiscates ‘mind-boggling’ amounts of Mkpuru Mmiri, other unregistered, banned drugs

By Ijendu Iheaka

Aba (Abia) Feb. 10, 2025

The National Agency For Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) on Monday took over Ariaria International Market in Aba, Abia after discovering huge amounts of unregistered and banned drugs.

The agency also confiscated a huge amount of unregistered and banned medicines at the Patent Medicines section of the market.

Mr. Omoyeni Babatunde, NAFDAC Deputy Director in charge of Enforcement and Federal Task Force, South South / South East disclosed this during an interview with newsmen on Monday.

“Today, people are not in the market; we have taken over the market and we have been working from shop to shop but have made no arrests yet”, Babatunde said.

News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that some of the items found in one of the Patent Medicine Shops included a substance suspected to be Crystal Methamphetamine (Mkpuru Mmiri).

The substance was wrapped like cigarettes with wrappers bearing Epsom Salt and hidden away in small cartons written Epsom Salt and packed behind doors.

“We have been here at Ariaria International Market since morning and press men have covered practically everything we have done here.

“What we have seen here is mind-boggling.

“We have seen Analgin injection, Gentamicin 280 mg all of which medicines have long been banned by the organization (NAFDAC)”, he said.

Babatunde said that some medicines being confiscated have either no NAFDAC registration number or are not supposed to be sold by a patent medicine dealer.

He said the screening of the market is a national assignment given the zone which is coordinated by the NAFDAC Zonal Director, Mr. Martins Iluyomade.

He said the scope of the assignment given the agency at Ariaria is to search for all products not registered by NAFDAC in the market.

He said that the assignment at the Aba area, which he is in charge of, has three locations where work is presently going on.

Babatunde said the screening is the result of intelligence from inter-agency collaboration involving the Directorate of State Services (DSS), the Nigeria Police, Nigerian Army and NAFDAC.

Babatunde explained that any related product in the market without NAFDAC number, had not passed through NAFDAC’s processes and is not qualified to be on sale.

“If you go through NAFDAC’s mandate critically, you will see that the agency is empowered to enter any premises, if need be, by force when we reasonably suspect contravention of NAFDAC statutory regulations.

“We have to screen the entire shops because that is the scope we were given and we are being meticulous about it.

“So one shop after the other, we are going to carry out the operation to the letter”, he stressed.

He said that the agency cannot quantify the worth of medicines being confiscated because the work is continuing but would do so when the assignment is completed.