NAFDAC procures 73 vehicles, reads Riot Act to drug peddlers

The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control has commissioned 73 brand new Hilux utility vehicles, saloon cars and staff buses to boost its operational efficiency.

NAFDAC Director-General, Prof. Mojisola Adeyeye, in a statement Sunday, said the officials of the Investigation and Enforcement Directorate would use the utility vehicles to pursue peddlers of contraband, counterfeited products across the nooks and crannies of Nigeria. 

• NIGERIA DAILY: Electoral Act: Ways In Which The 2023 Election Will Be Radically Different
• Nigerians to pay more for bread as Russian-Ukraine war rages

She said procurement of the vehicles would end the usual practice where clients bring their vehicles to ferry agency staff to site for inspection.

She noted that the inspection exercise is already compromised ab initio when staff of a regulatory body would have to depend on their clients to transport them to the factory to be inspected.

She said 20 Toyota Camry 2021 brand for some directors were commissioned in Abuja; 10 60-seater coaster and hummer buses, at the Oshodi office complex;  and 43 Hilux vans, at the investigation and enforcement directorate in Apapa.

She said the N3.2bn debt she met when she resumed about four years ago was paid back barely a year after she took over. 

Adeyeye said NAFDAC was able to burst a syndicate that brought 30 containers of tramadol to the country about three years ago through a tipoff by the Presidency.

“The Ports Inspection officers of the agency kept vigil for days at the ports before the consignments worth over N2trn were apprehended and contents destroyed”, she added.