The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) said it stopped 31 containers of Tramadol worth N1.7trillion from entering Nigeria, based on intelligence reports.
The Director-General of NAFDAC, Prof. Mojisola Adeyeye, disclosed this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja.
According to her, the agency has zero tolerance for importing substandard, falsified medicines since she assumed duty.
“When I assumed office, during my first six months, I was running after tramadol; I didn’t have time for up to 40 per cent of other regulatory activities.
“We got a tip from the eye up that 31 containers of tramadol worth N1.7trillion were coming to Nigeria and NAFDAC must make sure that those containers are intercepted.
“That was in September 2018, and I thought maybe somebody was playing a joke on me.
“Thank God that I had another email from that higher-up that gave us the information; I said, sir, is this a joke? and he said no.
“NAFDAC must go after the 31 containers, and they listed when they will be arriving; container one this day, container two this very day, our staff didn’t sleep for months.
“Those containers were labelled for boarded terminal meaning nobody should be able to examine them and it was labelled building materials but they were tramadol.
“Out of the 31 containers, only one had building materials.
“The shippers, whoever they were, knew that NAFDAC is at the ports, and we were monitoring them through software.
“We can monitor when the shipment and consignment leave and start coming on the sea; we can monitor them.”
She disclosed that one of the container shippers noticed that the port was hot with NAFDAC presence, turned back, and went to a neighbouring country.
“We went to our Ambassador in that neighbouring country and urged him to please wait for somebody to come and claim this container.
“They knew what we are trying to do; nobody showed up.
“Four other containers too turned back and went to another country in West Africa; the country said where are you coming from? you were supposed to go to Nigeria, go back to Nigeria.
“So they went back to the first West African county where the first container went; so five containers are now in the West African county.
“This is the effort that NAFDAC was making; at that point, I think things were not very fine with NDLEA, but since the appointment of Gen. Buba Marwa, things have changed.
“I think maybe that was why they put NAFDAC on the spot because we are not supposed to be going after tramadol prescriptions above 50 to 100 milligrams.
“And the tramadol that is being imported into our country was 225 milligrams; that will fry the brain of anybody.
“At a point, I said is there a plan to destroy us? that was how bad it was.”
The D-G also revealed that NAFDAC had intensified efforts to reduce the prevalence of substandard Falsified Medicines in the country.
“On Nov. 13, 2017, when I resumed, I used an example of a child of my friend.
“They came from the United States to Nigeria for vacation; the child took ill and couldn’t get better. This was maybe two years before I resumed as the NAFDAC Director-General.
“The child was almost dying before they realised that it was a substandard falsified antibiotic that the child was placed on.
“As soon as they changed the antibiotic, or bought the right one, the child survived.
“I used that example on my first day in office but I didn’t know there was more problem that NAFDAC has faced before I arrived concerning substandard falsified medicine.”
She lamented that for seven years between 2011 and May 16, 2021, NAFDAC was removed from the ports.
According to her, NAFDAC was not at the ports for seven years, and we are supposed to regulate and control importation, exportation, manufacturing, and the rest.
“I was shocked; how can an agency that is supposed to regulate importation be removed from the ports?
“One picture that broke my heart before I started shouting was our staff couldn’t go to the Port.
“They have to stay in their cars to do their job and that time it was raining, they used a big umbrella to their job.
“I said this is not real. This cannot be real and thank God the National Security Adviser’s Office stepped in because at that time, also, Tramadol was reigning in Nigeria.
“Up to that point, India didn’t have tight control of the situation on narcotics.
“So they were trying to put things in order, to do things better in India, and I believe the deadline for that was 2018 September.
“So everybody was rushing to get all the narcotics they could get and dump on Nigeria to destroy our lives,” Adeyeye said.
