On Friday expired and fake drugs worth N50million were destroyed by the National Agency for Food, Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) in Sokoto State.
The expired and fake products were all burnt at Kwannawa dump site near old Post Office in Dange-Shuni Local Government Area of the state.
Adamu Garba, NAFDAC State Coordinator, said the exercise was part of routine efforts by the agency to sanitise the country of counterfeits, expired and other unregulated products from circulation.
“The products being destroyed today are made up of fake/counterfeit drugs, substandard and expired food products, cosmetics and regulated products seized by NAFDAC while some surrendered voluntarily by shop owners,” Garba said.
“This exercise is in public private partnership with drugs sellers, union members as about 80 per cent of destroyed products were voluntarily surrendered by them.”
He commended security agencies for their support and vowed the agency’s continued enforcement of sanctions.
The exercise was attended by NAFDAC Governing Board member, Tukur Sarkin Fada Tambuwal and Abdullahi Dikko, the Director of Reaserch and Statistics, Sokoto State Ministry of Environment.
Others are Nasiru Abdu from Sokoto State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA) and the representative of medicine vendors, Ogbu Batholomew.