The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control has cleared 140 tonnes of expired and unregistered drugs from Aba to its office in Anambra State.

The Deputy Director in charge of Investigation and Enforcement, NAFDAC Federal Taskforce, South-South and South-East states, Omoyemi Babatunji,  disclosed this on Saturday.

MrBabatunji, while briefing journalists on the agency’s operations in Aba, said more than 178 drug samples drawn from the operation would be subjected to laboratory investigation.

He said the 140 tonnes of expired drugs were evacuated from a warehouse in Umummeje, Umuocheala in the Osisioma Local Government Area, which excludes products from the Ariaria International Market drug shops.

Mr Blabatunji told journalists that two warehouses located on No. 269, Sam Mbakwe Road, formerly Faulk’s Road, Aba, filled with expired drugs had also been uncovered.

He said NAFDAC staff discovered that the suspects took away some cartons of the expired but re-labelled drugs after they uncovered the place and went to bring in security.

The NAFDAC deputy director who took journalists round the two freshly uncovered warehouses of expired products, said the evacuation of the drugs in them would start on Saturday.

He noted that recent discoveries of expired products being re-labelled and sent to markets renewed the urgent call for a drug warehouse Wholesale Control Centre (CWC) in Aba.

He said “This activity is a drive toward the achievement of Wholesale Control Centres (CWCs), as NAFDAC is now on ML3 or what we call Maturity Level 3 of the World Health Organisation (WHO).

“All these our activities are derived from global benchmarking tools for regulatory activities and coordinated warehouse system is part of it so we can regulate and control those drugs. And NAFDAC has been engaging state governors of Abia and Anambra states, where those centres are located, pushing for the establishment of the CWC warehouse system.”

Another Deputy Director, NAFDAC, Luis Nadubuata, said the discovery of stockpiles of expired products in Aba was horrifying and worrisome.

He said, “We actually got here because of the collaborative operation that is going on in Aba between NAFDAC and security agencies. So through intelligence, we got to know that there is another place here where these expired products are being re-labelled and sent to the market. For now, no arrest has been made because when we came in, evidently, we saw that people just vacated the house with their refrigerator and other electronic gadgets still switched on.”

Mr Madubuata, however, expressed hope that the police would apprehend the suspects and make them to face the law.

He thanked Abia governor, Dr Alex Otti’s government, noting that NAFDAC’s work in Aba had progressed with no disturbances because the government supported it immensely.

(NAN)