THE National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control, NAFDAC, has uncovered a warehouse in Lagos where fake drugs with capacity to cause users’ deaths were stored.
NAFDAC’s Director of Investigation and Enforcement and Chairman of the Federal Task Force on Fake and Substandard Products, Mr Martins Iluyomade, announced the discovery to newsmen on Monday.
The finding journalists were told followed intelligence from a training meeting held on February 3 on suspicious activities around the Trade Fair–Navy area.
The warehouse located at Trade Fair area Iluyomade said, were deserted multiple structures built like residential houses but used solely for storage, with large quantities of counterfeit medicines, including injectable anti-malarials, antibiotics, sachet drugs, blister packs, and banned products such as Analgin, which has been prohibited for over 15 years found inside it.
“What we discovered should make every Nigerian cry. These were not just fake vitamins. These were life-saving medicines — injections used in emergency cases like cerebral malaria. When fake injections are used in such situations, it becomes a death sentence.
“It is extremely difficult to distinguish the fake from the original. Even product owners sometimes struggle to tell the difference. That is how sophisticated these criminals have become,” he stated.
He declared that the street value of the confiscated products is over N3 billion, with eight trailers loaded with assorted fake medicines and cosmetics evacuated from the site.
“This is a major breakthrough for Nigeria and Nigerians. These products will not enter circulation,” the NAFDAC official said.
According to him, the operation was the work of an international syndicate.
“They clone original products. They take samples of genuine medicines, reproduce them abroad to near perfection, and push them back into our distribution chain. This is organised crime involving collaborators both inside and outside Nigeria,” he added.
