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NAFDAC Arrests Three, Seals Shops Over Fake Medical Devices In Onitsha

By By Joseph Onyekwere and Beta Nwaosu (Abuja)
16 May 2015   |   1:05 am
THE National Agency for Food, Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) yesterday arrested three traders in the Surgical Devices Section of Bridge-Head Market, Onitsha, Anambra, for selling fake and unregistered medical devices. Operatives of the agency from Investigation and Enforcement Directorate, who stormed the market in company of security men, also sealed off four shops where…
Director-General of NAFDAC, Paul Orhii

Director-General of NAFDAC, Paul Orhii

THE National Agency for Food, Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) yesterday arrested three traders in the Surgical Devices Section of Bridge-Head Market, Onitsha, Anambra, for selling fake and unregistered medical devices.

Operatives of the agency from Investigation and Enforcement Directorate, who stormed the market in company of security men, also sealed off four shops where the fake and unregistered medical devices, which are mostly used to test blood pressure, temperature and insulin levels, were sold.

According to a statement by Anslem Okonkwor of the Public Relations Unit of the agency, the leader of the team, Mr Babatunde Omoyeni, a Chief Regulatory Officer, said that the agency was out to mop up all imported fake and unregistered medical devices.

Omoyeni said that the agency was moved by intelligence tip-off on the devices and which showed that the imported fake and unregistered medical devices led to wrong diagnosis and sudden death of patients.

Omoyeni said: “In medicine, we believe so much that if the diagnosis is wrong, the medical treatment would be a total failure. As a way of guarding against this therapeutic failure, we are out to flush out these medical devices from circulation to protect the companies that are manufacture genuine products from the unscrupulous people and traders in the market who are going to other countries to bring in fake medical devices to pollute the system.

Meanwhile, the agency has called for close down of factories whose products fail micronutrient fortification compliance test.

Benue State Coordinator of NAFDAC, Anikoh Ibrahim, made this known yesterday when he led officials of the agency to markets.

A statement issued quoted him as saying that sugar, floor, salt and vegetable oil products sold in the market were tested for micronutrient fortification compliance.

Ibrahim condemned the level of micronutrient deficiency among Nigerian children. He stated that micronutrient deficiencies are causes of malnutrition among children and death of young mothers during childbirth.

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