Why control of smuggling of illicit drug into Nigeria is impossible - NAFDAC

Abiola Seun |

The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) has raised alarm over 1400 illegal and unmanned border routes fuelling smuggling of drugs in Nigeria.

This was even as the, Director of Public Affairs, Mr Abubakar Jimoh said any hope in the present dispensation to end the influx of fake drugs into the country may remain a mirage for now.

Jimoh who said this in Abuja, while expressing concern over what he termed “porous nature of the country’s borders,”, which enables easy smuggling of contraband foods and drugs.

Jimoh said “the vulnerability of the country’s borders made it possible for other countries to see Nigeria as dumping ground”, adding that because Nigeria has 1400 illegal routes, through which foods and drugs can be smuggled in, “we are vulnerable and all sorts of things find their way into the country”.
He noted that the agency’s Pharmacovigilance Department in charge of post marketing survey which monitors goods coming into the country was doing its best toward surveillance.

He said that the department often embarked on surveillance to get intelligent information needed to stop illegal importation of food items and drugs into the country.
He noted that “the department was created to ensure that goods that did not pass through the normal channels were seized and those behind it were apprehended.”

The director stated that some of the culprits arrested had been arraigned to deter others who might want to do same.