National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) and the mobile police attached to it were, yesterday, attacked by traders and touts at the Area 1 motor park in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja. 
  
NAFDAC enforcement team, which was raiding motor park, busy confiscating drugs from hawkers at the park, when hoodlums stormed the enforcement area, throwing big stones and other dangerous objects at them and journalists. While the team scampered for safety, two of the vehicles belonging to NAFDAC were vandalised by the hoodlums. 
  
It took the intervention of the mobile policemen, who threw tear gas canisters and shot into the air, to disperse the hoodlums while the enforcement team hurriedly escaped from the park. 
  
Speaking with journalists after the incident, the Assistant Chief Regulatory Officer, Investigation and Enforcement, Federal Task Force, NAFDAC, Umar Suleiman, said the raid followed intelligence from the Department of State Services (DSS), last year, on the activities of drug hawkers at the park. 
  
Suleiman observed that the enforcement team, on arrival, swung into action while the drug hawkers absconded but later mobilised in full force against the team, throwing stones on them and smashing their vehicles’ windshields. 
  
He said: “This exercise that we just conducted at Area 1 motor park was as a result of intelligence we received from the DSS since last year. A lot of hawkers were there selling their products and many people patronising them.” That was why we raided the park. The attack is a normal thing for us in the investigation and enforcement department; that is the reason we always go with armed MOPOL and Investigating Police Officers (IPOs) in case of any arrest. 
  
“But to my surprise, we have not done half of the work when the drug hawkers absconded, butmobilised in full force against us.”  The officer stated that the team confiscated some drugs like Rohypnol, Dizapam, Tramadol (500mg and 225mg), Cocodamol and so many other aphrodisiacs among others.  He noted that the that the drugs seized during the raid is worth about N5 million.