The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) has advocated death penalty for fake drug peddlers in the country as part of its sustained drive to sanitize the Nigerian pharmaceutical products market of abuses by miscreants.
The agency’s Director-General, Prof. Mojisola Adeyeye, made this call at a programme at the weekend stressing that it is only death penalty that can discourage drug peddlers from continuing in their heinous crimes, especially those whose actions are heightening infant mortality.
The NAFDAC DG cited the case of a person importing a highly dangerous dose of tramadol, which could cause severe harm or death, yet only receiving a minimal sentence of five years in prison or a fine of N250,000.
She said: “Who wouldn’t pay a fine of N250,000 and go on to commit the same offense? That’s part of our issue—there are no stringent measures in place to prevent repeat offences.”
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According to her, the agency has secured the assurance of lawmakers in the National Assembly in its efforts to make penalties for drug peddling far more severe.
While maintaining that NAFDAC has remained relentless in its sustained initiatives to combat the menace of substandard drugs in the country, Adeyeye spoke on the agency’s challenge of inadequate workforce and other resources.
Specifically, she pointed out that with just around 2,000 employees nationwide (equivalent to one NAFDAC staff serving 119,000 citizens, based on 238 million population), the agency had been facing serious challenges in carrying out its enforcement duties.
The Director-General said: “We are understaffed, and our funding is limited. I hope things will improve so we can strengthen our efforts.”
The World Health Organisation (WHO) considers counterfeiting of any product is a crime and maintains that counterfeiting of pharmaceuticals is a serious criminal offence and handling such counterfeit is an unethical practice because it endangers human health.
The organisation highlights varying health hazards of counterfeit products as including ineffectiveness of drugs, serious damage to health and even death.
The WHO insists that counterfeiting of medicine is unacceptable since such products are not manufactured and packaged properly under controlled channels and are not subject to established safeguards provided by drug regulation, quality assurance, GMP and inspection.
