Western Marine Command of the Nigeria Customs Service has handed seized drugs worth N62.3 million to the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration Control.
The Controller of the Command, Deputy Comptroller E. Ochiba, disclosed during the handing over briefing ceremony that smugglers redo the expiry details of the drugs.
Ochiba also said that the drugs, which were seized by its patrol team based on credible intelligence along Abumbum-Ojo waterway, include 817 bottles of B-Vital, 1,158 bottles of Kordy-capsule, 3,110 bottles of Double Ginseng, 619 bottles of Detoxina and 607 bottles of B-care.
Other products include 198 sachets of Ninhuang Jeedu pian, 1,200 sachets of St Formula, 475 bottles of Apetamin Syrup, seven bottles of Spinsure Table, and 17 bottles of Danshen Plus.
The rest are seven bottles of Arthro capsule, 13 bottles of Spinsore Pill, 123 bottles of Chitomeala and bundles of printed labels of Double Ginseng with Batch no. DG 04021.
He said: “These are expired, unused and contaminated pharmaceuticals which, if not intercepted by our operatives, would cause havoc to the society in general.
”I am handing over the seized expired drugs to the Director, NAFDAC Investigation and Enforcement as directed by the Comptroller General of Customs. I want the smugglers to know that the operatives of the Command would leave no stone unturned until they meet their waterloo.”
NAFDAC Director of Enforcement, represented by Yahaya Abdulmajeed, while responding said his agency appreciates the operational collaboration between it and Customs, saying that Customs have taken away quite an amount of burden.
“We were invited to come and take over the apprehended, expired seized drugs. We appreciate the Customs because this has been some sort of nightmare for NAFDAC. I recall that around August this year, NAFDAC destroyed a lot of pharmaceutical products, most were unregistered while some have expired,” he said.