Recently, in a disturbing development, the Director-General of the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), Professor Mojisola Adeyeye, decried the threats to her life by certain unspecified individuals. She also expressed worry about the safety of staffers of the agency, urging the government to provide them with better protection. Speaking at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, Adeyeye disclosed that NAFDAC officials had faced constant danger while cracking down on fake and substandard pharmaceutical products across the country. She also harped on her advocacy for the death sentence as punishment for the merchants of death dealing in counterfeit drugs. Her words: ?Our officials have been targeted simply for doing their jobs. One of our staff members in Kano had his child kidnapped because he refused to compromise. Luckily, the child escaped.? According to the NAFDAC DG, while cracking down on the fake drugs industry, the agency recently seized 87 truckloads of substandard and expired medical products, including antiretroviral drugs, condoms, and other compromised medical supplies.

The crackdown, which took place at major drug markets in Lagos, Onitsha, and Aba, resulted in the largest feat recorded in the agency?s history, namely the confiscation of fake drugs valued at over N1 trillion. However, as the NAFDAC boss stated, these efforts had drawn the ire of criminals, causing her to require round-the-clock police protection. She said: ?I have two policemen living with me in Abuja and Lagos. I don?t have a life anymore. I can?t go anywhere without escorts. That?s not how I want to live, but I have no choice.? The NAFDAC boss did not however fail to reiterate that no threat and intimidation would weaken the agency?s resolve to purge the country of counterfeit drugs.

For obvious reasons, the declaration by the NAFDAC boss should be taken very seriously. Presumably, the criminals running the fake drug industry want no official disturbance or even sanction, and would go to any length, including assassination of government officials simply doing their job to keep the country safe from the fake drug epidemic, to keep their business running. Since such people are criminals to begin with, it is a no-brainer that they will have no qualms committing crime in order to keep perpetrating their crime. We recall that during her memorable tenure as NAFDAC DG, the late Dora Akunyili was similarly threatened and almost killed by the merchants of evil behind the counterfeit and substandard drugs business. On December 26, 2003, gunmen fired at Akunyili?s convoy while she was on her way to her village in Anambra State. The bullets narrowly missed killing her. In a statement by its chairman, Peter Eigen, in January 2004, Transparency International (TI), the leading international non-governmental organization dedicated to the fight against corruption worldwide, said: ?The assassination attempt on Dr. Akunyili illustrates the threats faced by corruption fighters worldwide, whose acts of bravery challenge those bent on disrupting law and order and undermining democracy. We call on the Nigerian authorities to investigate this assassination attempt and prosecute those responsible for this heinous act. We wish Dr. Akunyili a speedy recovery and stand firm with her in her courageous efforts to root out corruption in Nigeria.?

In January 2011 while she was a senatorial candidate on the platform of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), Akunyili would later tell the fake drug dealers who were allegedly threatening to deny her their votes during the general election that she did not need their votes. As she said at the time: ?Those people that I stepped on their toes are criminals and criminals have no power as long as one is doing the right thing. If they had the kind of power they claim, I would not be alive today. Sometimes, people ask what of the votes? My response is, I don?t want the vote of a killer.? As a matter of fact, every NAFDAC boss since then has had long-running battles with these criminals who have no value for life but treasure only the rustle of currency notes. They are just like the traders in hard drugs who perceive every official of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) as a threat and have been known to injure and kill gallant personnel of the agency who tried to stop their nefarious business by busting their criminal hideouts.

At the risk of sounding repetitive, we declare that the threat posed to the NAFDAC boss should not be handled with levity. In this connection, it is cheering news that she has armed escorts, but the government should also support her and the agency with all the resources they require in order to take the battle to the enemy and put them out of circulation. Under no circumstances should the country be allowed to descend to the level of climes where drug cartels almost overran the state. Manufacturers of fake drugs are enemies of the Nigerian State who want to undermine, degrade and destroy its productive population with their nefarious activities. Instead of a cure, they offer diseases and death to unsuspecting citizens who just want their health situation improved. They should be treated like the criminals that they are.

We hope that the government will take the alleged assassination threat to the NAFDAC DG as an opportunity to renew the onslaught on the manufacturers of fake drugs and make them cry bitter tears while keeping her safe and sound. (Nigerian Tribune Editorial)

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