Kano: NAFDAC shuts down two fake drug factories

Officials of the National Agency for Food, Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) have shut down the operations of two counterfeit animal drug factories in Bichi Local Government Area of Kano State during a raid on Wednesday.

This was confirmed by the Shaba Muhammad, the state Coordinator of the agency.

Muhammad said that the raid was sequel to the discovery of a large quantity of the counterfeit animal drugs in circulation at Sabon Gari and other major markets in Kano metropolis, The Vanguard said.

He said that the agency had been trailing the producer of the fake drugs for the past six months.

The Coordinator said that personnel of the agency raided the factories on Tuesday in Bichi town and recovered drugs worth over N10 million.

Muhammad noted that the factories produced fake animal drugs and injections labelled with fake NAFDAC’s registration numbers to deceive unsuspected members of the public.

He added that the agency arrested one suspect, Jamilu Muhammad-Sani, who is the proprietor of the factories.

“We take samples of the drugs and injections from the factories for laboratory analysis to ascertain the efficacy of the products,” he said.

Muhammad said that the suspect would be prosecuted after investigations had been concluded by NAFDAC.

The Vanguard said that he called on the people to report suspicious activities and persons engaged in illicit drugs trade in their communities to the relevant agencies of government to check the circulation of counterfeit products in the state.

On his part, the suspect, Muhammad-Sani, who claimed to be a certified veterinary technician, said he had been producing animal drugs in the past one year.

Sani said that he distributed the drugs to markets in Kano, adding that he used to source the ingredients and other raw materials for the production of drugs from the city.