February 07, (THEWILL) – The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) has called for strict measures including the death penalty for fake drug peddlers.
The agency’s Director-General, Mojisola Adeyeye, made the call on Friday when she was featured on Channels Television’s ‘The Morning Brief’.
THEWILL recalls that a former NAFDAC DG, Paul Orhii, had revealed a proposed bill seeking the death penalty for fake drug dealers.
According to the NAFDAC DG, “In the proposed new law, we will strongly advocate the death penalty or lifetime jail term for manufacturers and distributors of fake drugs, especially in situations where it is determined that such medicines proximately caused death or severe bodily injury. We will also seek to provide in the new law, a cause of action for victims of counterfeit drugs and actively encourage and assist victims to gather evidence to enable them to successfully sue manufacturers and distributors of these deadly products for adequate compensation and punitive damages to serve as deterrent to others.”
Calling for the support of all stakeholders on Friday, Adeyeye called for the cooperation of the judiciary and the National Assembly to make the proposal a reality.
Adeyeye, who highlighted the challenges of the agency in its war against fake drugs, said, “There are no strict measures to stop offenders from repeating the same crime”, charging the judiciary to be strong and firm.
“So, our judicial system must be strong enough. We are working with the National Assembly to make our penalties much stiffer. But if you kill a child with bad medicine, you deserve to die.
“Someone brought in 225mg of Tramadol, which can kill a person or fry their brain, and the punishment is just five years in prison or a fine of N250,000. Who doesn’t know that a person can simply withdraw N250,000 from an ATM?” she said.
Lamenting the impact of fake drugs, Adeyeye said, “Somebody bought children’s medicine for about N13,000, while another person was selling it for around N3,000 in the same mall. That raised an alarm. Guess what? When we tested the medicine in our Kaduna lab, there was nothing inside. So, I want the death penalty.
“You don’t need to put a gun to a child’s head to kill them. Just give them bad medicine. You cannot fight substandard and falsified medicines in isolation. The agency can only do so much, but if there is no deterrent, there will be a problem.”
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