Professor Mojisola Adeyeye, Director General of the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), has warned that drug hawkers and fruit sellers are threatening Nigerians’ lives.
Adeyeye talked at a one-day media sensitization program on the dangers of drug hawking and the use of Calcium Carbide to ripen produce. It was organized yesterday in Bauchi by NAFDAC’s North East zone.
The NAFDAC DG urged Nigerians against purchasing pharmaceuticals from hawkers and dealers of fruits ripened with calcium carbide due to the health risks they represent.
She noted that bogus medications and the chemical ripening of fruits were two deadly methods used by unscrupulous individuals that were killing naive citizens.
She added that the purpose of the workshop was to educate journalists in order to raise public awareness about the hazards that exist in order for Nigerians to stop patronizing them.
Adeyeye, who was represented by the Agency’s Director of Chemical Evaluation and Research, Dr. Leonard Omokpariola, revealed that well-meaning Nigerians had called for stringent regulatory action to stem the dangerous tide of drug hawkers and sellers of ripened fruits laced with Calcium Carbide.
According to the DG, there have been various concerns raised about the imminent danger and health implications of these two illicit operations in the country.
“Since 2019, we immediately took some decisive steps such as sensitization of the public through different media outlets, enforcement through intelligence, and raids in fruit markets that have resulted in seizures and destruction of violative products.”
The DG stated that the media workshop fulfilled the agency’s vow to preserve and strengthen NAFDAC’s existing engagement with journalists in mobilizing, educating, sensitizing, and conscientiously informing members of the public about the dangerous practice.
“We are doing it for Nigerian journalists to play a frontline role in our concerted efforts to eradicate the menace of drug hawking and fruit ripening with calcium carbonate in Nigeria,” she explained.
According to the NAFDAC DG, bulk industrial food or food items such as cereals (Cornflakes, Oatmeal, Milk, and Beverages) were granted import licenses for end-users in the manufacturing industry.
She stated that NAFDAC has discovered bulk industrial food that was not in retail packaging being sold illegally in our markets.
“These bulk items are openly displayed and measured to unassuming buyers with little or no care from contamination”, she said.
Adeyeye stated that the agency was currently addressing such market practice by monitoring end-user utilization rates and capacity (installed) to prevent gas/leakage of non-retail packaged product from being sold in our marketplaces.
She warned the public against purchasing unsafe non-retail packed foods from the market to avoid the risk of consuming contaminated, substandard, expired, or adulterated food or falling victim to food fraud, which might have serious health consequences.
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