NAFDAC busts Lagos fake drugs warehouse

NAFDAC DG, Prof. Moji Adeyeye

The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control has uncovered a warehouse on the top floor of the Tools and Hardware Complex, Trade Fair, Lagos, containing packaging materials for suspected falsified cosmetics and medicines.

This was disclosed by the Assistant Director of the agency’s Investigation and Enforcement Directorate, Kunle Ojo, in two video clips shared on the agency’s official X page on Saturday.

According to Ojo, in a two-storey warehouse located along the Lagos-Badagry Expressway at the Trade Fair Complex in Ojo/Satellite Town, officials found empty packs of Augmentin 625mg and Ampiclox, as well as bottle caps bearing the Gordon’s Gin brand.

He said, “We are in Tools and Hardware Complex, a segment at the Lagos Trade Fair Complex. From what we have seen here so far, we have unlabelled, unregistered cosmetics products.

“This is a bar of soap, we don’t even know the name of the soap, and these are packaging materials of cosmetics. As a matter of fact, what is written on it is Tumeric Vitamin C.”

At the entrance of the complex labelled BH, the agency’s Investigation and Enforcement officers found what appeared to be a stack of empty tubes packed into large, sealed brown cartons.

In the video, in another storey building, they also found empty packs of cosmetics stacked in what looked like green bags.

Ojo added, “These are empty tubes of shampoos. And at the same time, we have seen another pack filled with packaging materials of different cosmetics products. There is another lotion here, Moisturing Scrub.

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“We also found some other products on the floor, which means that production is taking place in this particular place. In another floor we find empty production materials with cover to be used for illegal production.

“This is another floor, where we have what they have already produced like Gluta White cream, we also discovered different packaging materials of Augmentin. These are not coming from GSK and we also saw packaging materials for Ampiclox capsule.”

On Friday, NAFDAC said it had also uncovered cartons of unregistered Parago candy concealed among other goods in a rice warehouse in the Iddo market area of Lagos during an enforcement operation.

According to the agency, the products were hidden in different cartons in an apparent attempt to disguise their identity.

Last month, Sunday PUNCH also reported that NAFDAC had also uncovered a residential building in Lagos used to store empty alcoholic beverage bottles.

According to the agency, over 100 sacks of empty bottles were discovered and destroyed to prevent their reuse in the production of counterfeit alcoholic drinks.