Worries as NAFDAC Closure of Onitsha Drug Market Enters Week 8, Traders Send Message to Tinubu
- NAFDAC’s surprise raid on Onitsha’s Bridge Head Drug Market led to the seizure of 60 trailer-loads of drugs and a prolonged market closure, devastating traders’ livelihoods
- Protesting traders accuse NAFDAC of confiscating genuine pharmaceuticals, imposing unfair fines, and falsely claiming the market has reopened
- Market leaders seek dialogue with NAFDAC, while traders demand an independent probe into the seized goods and immediate market reopening
Traders in the popular Onitsha Bridge Head Drug Market, under the umbrella body of ‘Ogbogwu Market, Bridge Head, Onitsha,’ has continued to count their losses, as the market has remained closed since February 10, 2025, when operatives of the National Agency for Food, Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), raided the market, reportedly catered away trailer loads of suspected fake drugs, and closed down the market, throwing hundreds of thousands of households into pains.
Operatives of the agency, led by Dr. Martins Iluyomade, Director of NAFDAC, South-East Zone, during the said raid, reportedly took traders by surprise as officials moved from shop to shop, seizing a wide range of pharmaceutical products.
Marketers and traders have accused NAFDAC of illegally withholding goods from businesses whose operations and products are legal and genuine.Source: Original
NAFDAC raided Onitsha markets, seized drugs
Among the confiscated items were fake and counterfeit antibiotics, antihypertensives, antidiabetics, antiasthmatics, aphrodisiacs, antimalarials, anti-inflammatory drugs, herbal remedies, and psychoactive substances.
According to the agency, the raid also uncovered banned drugs, including Analgin, Tramadol (above 100 mg), Gentamycin (280 mg), Codeine, and controlled substances, alongside vaccines, beverages, cosmetics, chemicals, unwholesome food products, and packaging materials.
The NAFDAC leader, Dr. Iluyomade, explained that the operation aligned with NAFDAC’s mandate to eradicate fake, banned, and substandard products from Nigerian markets to protect unsuspecting consumers; adding that over time, the agency have gathered intelligence on fake and substandard drugs in the markets and discovered that people are repackaging counterfeit drugs to deceive the public.
According to him, the exercise was aimed at sanitizing the market, safeguarding public health, and removing expired, banned, substandard, and defective drugs from circulation.
Market remains sealed seven weeks after
Meanwhile, about seven weeks after the raid of the Onitsha drug market, the market reportedly remained closed; a development that has affected both genuine traders in market and their teeming customers.
On Tuesday, March 25, 2025, a group of traders in the market, under the auspices of ‘Concerned Genuine Members of Ogbogwu Drugs Market,’ organized a protest march in Onitsha, where they brandished placards of different inscriptions depicting their anger towards NAFDAC over what they described as continued closure of the drug market.
Speaking exclusively with our correspondent during the protest, leader of the protesters, Emmanuel Ozoemena, claimed that “overzealous NAFDAC officials stormed the market without prior notice; broke into shops in the absence of shop owners and traders, and finally carted away sixty (60) trailer loads of drugs worth several billions of naira.”
He further noted that the claim by NAFDAC that the drug market has been re-opened is a big lie, as, according to him, the entire market remained under lock and key; adding that NAFDAC requested traders in the market to pay two million naira per shop for profiling before they would be allowed to go into their shops.
He said:
“NAFDAC invaded our various shops in our absence and carted away NAFDAC registered goods worth billions of Naira. They also carted away drugs from multinational companies from USA, Germany, Turkey, Pakistan – all of international standards, and impeccable qualities – same drugs they use to request when they travel for medical vacations abroad.
“The claims by NAFDAC that all the drugs they carted away are fake and substandard are inhuman and malicious lies meant to tarnish the good image of thousands of responsible and genuine business men and women at Ogbogwu drug market.”
Ozoemena also claimed that no fewer than five traders from the distressed Ogbogwu drug market have reportedly died, and several others hospitalized, as a result of trauma from the closure of the market; while also saying that many chemists and pharmaceutical shops have closed down as a result of the measure, causing several deaths from treatable ailments.
Also speaking with our correspondent, another protester, Ifeanyi Chinedu, challenged the federal government to set up a high powered panel of enquiry “to investigate the goods carted away in over 60 trailer loads, with the aim of ascertaining the veracity of the claims of overzealous NAFDAC officials.”
He also averred that the claims by NAFDAC officials that shops were searched in the presence of traders was another “malicious and fabricated lies meant to cover the heinous crime of barbaric breaking, entering, searching and loathing of people’s shops in their absence, including boutiques and wine shops in the market”.
He also rejected what he described as “criminal fines” imposed on the traders by NAFDAC, and further called on the Federal Ministry of Health, the National Security Adviser, and the National Assembly to come to their rescue.
Another trader, who also spoke with our Correspondent, Uzondu Chibuike, said that the claims by NAFDAC that Ogbogwu was re-opened since late February, 2025, were all lies, malicious, unprofessional, and victimization “aimed at grounding the source of livelihood of south easterners, when political alienation seems not to be working.”
While pledging the traders’ loyalty to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, and Governor Charles Soludo, he further demanded immediate and unconditional re-opening of the market to genuine business men and women in the market. He also called for immediate prosecution of those caught with suspected fake and substandard drugs.
In a separate forum, the leadership of the drug market has also assured the readiness of the traders to dialogue with NAFDAC to know the way forward.
In a press conference on Wednesday in Onitsha, the Caretaker Chairman of the market, Chukwuleta Ndubuisi, said that the executive members of the market are meeting with NAFDAC for amicable resolution of the matter, and subsequent re-opening of the market.
Flanked by other officers and members of the market such as Benjamin Akudi, Olisaeke Kenneth, Ihuoma Joshua, Machi Clement, Bob Onyeka and Hon Samuel, the market leader recalled that when NAFDAC officials arrived the market in February, they told him that they had intelligence report about presence of fake, adulterated, expired and unauthorized drugs in three lines in the market, including: Egbeigwe, Mount Zion and Udoka Lines; stating that trader were not given prior notice before the operatives stormed the market.
The chairman said though he would not claim total absence of fake drugs in the market, yet, NAFDAC classified majority of genuine and potent drugs, foods and beaverages of multinational companies from USA, Germany, Turkey and Pakistan – all of international standards, as fake because, they were not registered with the agency.
Meanwhile, a NAFDAC official in Onitsha office, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, because he was not authorized to do so, told our Correspondent that the money charged by NAFDAC as claimed by the protesters, were official fines and penalties meant for defaulters – not all the traders.
He said:
“Traders in the market were charged depending on the category of their offences. They claim that NAFDAC have not re-opened their market – we did. We only told them that every trader must come to our office for profiling. Those found wanting will pay required fines, then, go back to their shops. But when a trader is not found wanting in any way, we’ll give him authority paper to open for business. So, we’re not holding any trader from opening his shop.”
“My Life Is in Danger,” NAFDAC DG Raises Fresh Alarm
Earlier, TheTalk.NG reported that the Director-General of the National Agency for Food, Drugs Administration and Control (NAFDAC), Prof. Mojisola Adeyeye, had raised the alarm over threats to her life and the safety of agency staff.
She called on the federal government to intervene and urged authorities to protect them as they navigate hazardous conditions in their duties.
Source: TheTalk.NG
