BY PETER DURU
MAKURDI — THE Director-General of the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control, NAFDAC, Dr. Paul Orhii, Monday, disclosed that four persons were allegedly killed in Gboko, Makurdi and Otukpo local government Areas of Benue State after fake procaine penicillin and gentamycin were administered on them.
Orhii who made this known at a one-day consumer awareness and sensitization forum in Gboko urged Nigerians to stand up against the fakers of drugs in Nigeria “because they are worsethan armed robbers.”
He lamented that the porous nature of Nigerian borders was making it easier for fakers of drugs to penetrate the rural communities.
He said: “NAFDAC, as an agency that is very responsive to the needs of the people, decided to bring its campaign to Gboko because the rural areas are where the poor, uneducated and vulnerable largely reside.”
He warned that the “fakers of drugs are becoming more sophisticated and daring, and because Nigeria carries a heavy disease burden, traffickers in these drugs are targeting our country”.
Orhii, however, disclosed that NAFDAC had approached the Federal Government for a N200 billion pharmaceutical intervention fund to provide funds for pharmaceutical companies to aid the production of drugs in the country.
He said when this finally comes on stream many pharmaceutical companies in the country would assess readily available funds to aid the production of drug in the country and thereby discourage the importation of fake drugs into country.
Earlier during a courtesy on the Tor Tiv, HRH Dr. Alfred Torkula, Dr. Orhii urged the royal father to join the campaign against the fakers of drugs in the country.
In his response, the Tor Tiv urged the NAFDAC to establish office in the rural communities as a means of intensifying the war against the killers of the rural dwellers through fake drugs.
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