By Paul Effiong, Abuja
South East Caucus in the House of Representatives has directed the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control, NAFDAC, to reopen the Onitsha Bridge Head Market in Anambra State, maintaining that most traders in the zone are into legitimate businesses.
Speaking during a press briefing at the National Assembly, Abuja, on Tuesday, Chairman of the Caucus, Igariwey Enwo observed that locking down the market might be likened to a case of throwing away the baby with the bath water.
Lawmakers from the zone maintained that they have collectively condemned fake drug manufacturing stressing that such nefarious activity from unscrupulous traders in the market should be condemned by all and must not be tolerated by NAFDAC.
AljazirahNigeria gathered that NAFDAC had sealed over 4,000 shops in Onitsha, 3,027 shops in Lagos and 4,000 shops in Aba since the commencement of its ongoing nationwide operation against fake and substandard medicines in Nigeria.
Lawmakers from the South East Zone took turns to condemn the activities of the so-called businessmen and women who engage in the production and distribution of fake and adulterated medications and drugs to unsuspecting public.
They lamented that fake and substandard drugs have led directly and indirectly to the loss of many lives.
Lawmakers described those engaging in such illegal business as “death merchants, as well as economic saboteurs”, noting that they are not open to government scrutiny, as well as pay tax.
They however appealed to NAFDAC not to punish innocent and genuine traders operating legally as drug/medicine sellers alongside the alleged criminals, informing that there are good traders operating legally at the market.
The caucus also observed that the sealing of the entire market has a huge collateral damage on the entire country, particularly on medicine users in the South East and South South zones respectively.
It pleaded with NAFDAC to quickly resolve the situation by prosecuting only the offenders, sanitise the entire medical ecosystem, whether in Onitsha bridge head market or in Aba, Lagos or Kano.
“We are mindful of NAFDAC’s statutory role in curbing and stamping out fake drugs in the country, we urge them to quickly arrest and prosecute those responsible for the production and distribution of these fake drugs.
“The wholesale and indefinite sealing of a market that caters for over 90 percent of the medication needs of the South East and South South regions may not be the best approach.
“More so when it is considered that many traders in the same market are genuine business men and women.
“Therefore, to avoid a situation of visiting collective punishment on all the traders of Onitsha Bridge head Market, which is currently in a state of lockdown, and considering the wider collateral effect of the lockdown on the health needs of the larger population, they urged the Nigerian Customs Services, NCS, to stand up to their responsibilities by ensuring that the land, sea and air borders are better protected to nip in the bud, the influx of fake and adulterated drugs into the country.”
