The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) has sealed a warehouse stocked with 88,560 litres of controlled chemicals, including sulphuric and nitric acid, used for explosives in Kano.
Its Director-General, NAFDAC, Prof. Mojisola Adeyeye, disclosed this while briefing newsmen at the facility yesterday in Kwakwachi, Fagge Local Council of the state.
Represented by the Director of Investigation and Enforcement, Dr Martins Iluyomade, the DG said the warehouse contained 60,000 litres of sulphuric acid at 90.5 per cent, and 28,560 litres of nitric acid at 68 per cent, alongside 330 empty jerry cans, whose contents had been dispensed to unknown persons.
“What we have seen here is mind-boggling. I don’t think I have ever seen this quantity of concentrated nitric and sulphuric acid together in one place like this before,” Adeyeye said.
ALSO, the regulator destroyed Tramadol worth N91 million in the state.
The 491,000 tablets of seized Tramadol 225mg were earlier intercepted by the Nigerian Customs Service and subsequently handed over to the agency.
Adeyeye, who supervised the exercise, insisted that the agency would not rest until it rids the polity of dangerous drugs to safeguard society.
Represented by Iluyomade, the NAFDAC boss said the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Kano/Jigawa Command, intercepted the consignment when some unscrupulous elements attempted to smuggle it into the country.
She said the NCS, headed by Comptroller Dalhatu Abubakar, successfully intercepted the consignment during its routine patrol.
According to her, the tablets, packed in 491 rolls equivalent to 491,000 tablets, were abandoned by the smugglers after they were overwhelmed by Customs operatives.
“This operation demonstrates excellent inter-agency collaboration aimed at curbing the menace of illicit drug trade in Nigeria,” she said.
The NCS Area Controller, Kano/Jigawa Command, Dalhatu Abubakar, represented by Deputy Controller, Enforcement, Yusuf Idris, said the consignment was intercepted at the Mai Gatari border axis while coming from Niger Republic.
