Seized drugs returning into market, Maiduguri drug dealers raise alarm

The Drug dealers in the popular Gamboru Medicine Market in Maiduguri have raised an alarm that damaged drugs confiscated by National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) were being brought back into their market.

Penpushing reports that the dealers said months after the agency mopped up drugs worth over N1 billion damaged by the floodwater in the market on September 10, 2024, they alleged that strangers were peddling the same kind of drugs seized by the agency.

The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), it is recalled in collaboration with the Borno State Ministry of Health, inspected the market, warehouses, and homes of the dealers and confiscated the damaged drugs, describing them as unsafe for consumption.

The dealers, however, added that unscrupulous among them in an attempt to reduce their losses, were reported to be sun-drying the soaked drugs, which were earlier taken away by the authorities and found back in the market

Penpushing further reports that the complainants who raised the alarm expressed fear that some dealers may accept the drugs because, during the inspection by the agency, some insisted that the drugs were safe for consumption, but the officials insisted they were not.

“Some people have come here trying to sell the same kind of drugs confiscated by the government,” a drug dealer in the market said, “but we refused to buy, and we did not ask where they got them because it was not our business.”

Penpushing also reports that another drugs dealer in the market made a similar claim, affirming that some retailers who buy from them equally complained that new faces were approaching them with the damaged drugs.

“Some of my customers with small medicine stores came here and told me people were bringing them the kind of damaged drugs we earlier submitted to National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control’, the drug dealer said.

Penpushing reports that, in response to the allegation the President of the Nigerian Association of Patent and Proprietary Medicine Dealers, Borno State chapter, Jibrin Bukar, said he was not aware of the situation, stressing that the development looked shocked to him.

The President said he participated in the inspection exercise with the officials and confirmed that dealers handed over damaged drugs worth over N1 billion to the authorities, but stated that he could not ascertain that the drugs were destroyed as promised by the agency.

“NAFDAC took inventory of all the contaminated drugs. The drugs, worth over N1 billion, were taken away by NAFDAC. If this happened, I am just hearing it from you,” the president said.

Penpushing further reports that state coordinator of the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), Jamil Audu, when contacted said all the drugs confiscated from the market were destroyed last year.

“I led a team to mop up all contaminated drugs at Gamboru, an area opposite the University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital and at Monday Market. I led another team that took all the drugs to Gombe, and that was where we destroyed everything. I was there throughout the exercise; I saw the drugs on fire until they completely burned down’, he stated.

Penpushing also reports that the coordinator said explained that the items burned that day were worth about N10 billion, including expired items willingly submitted by organisations and individuals from across the region, and urged the drug dealers and residents to report suspicious movements to the authorities.

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