NAFDAC DG, Prof. Mojisola Adeyeye

 

The Director General of the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) Prof. Mojisola Adeyeye, on Wednesday raised the alarm over threats to her life and that of the agency’s staff, calling on the authorities to protect the operatives who daily navigate a great deal of hazards while carrying out their assigned responsibilities.

This comes as the NAFDAC boss prescribed the death penalty for counterfeit and illicit drug peddlers in the country.

Prof. Adeyeye addressed newsmen at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, where she had gone to speak on the agency’s recent large-scale enforcement operation across three major open drug markets—Onitsha, Aba, and Lagos—describing it as the biggest in NAFDAC’s history. She also disclosed that the value of the seized illicit and fake drugs was estimated at about N1 trillion.

Recall that Prof. Dora Akunyili was haunted by drug cartels due to her relentless efforts to combat counterfeit drugs in Nigeria during her tenure as the Director-General of NAFDAC from 2001 to 2009.

Her personal motivation stemmed from the death of her sister, who died after receiving fake insulin. Akunyili’s campaigns led to the closure of open-air medicine markets and the confiscation of large quantities of fake drugs, which earned her numerous threats and an assassination attempt in 2003.
Her actions significantly disrupted the operations of drug cartels, making her a target for retaliation.

Guardian