Nigeria seizes shipment of counterfeit drugs

A shipment of counterfeit drugs was recently seized at a Nigerian airport.

A consignment of fake Tramadol was seized by Nigeria’s National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) at the Mallam Aminu Kano International Airport in Kano on July 23, according to the Daily Sun. Tramadol is a painkiller that is often abused by youths in Nigeria, reports the news source.

Dr. Paul Orhii, the director-general of NAFDAC, said at a recent conference that his agency had been tracking and monitoring the individual behind the shipment of counterfeit drugs and that their efforts recently produced results.

“NAFDAC has now succeeded in unraveling the syndicate involved in this nefarious activities,” he said, according to the news source.

Nigeria has experienced a number of tragedies relating to counterfeit drugs over the years.

In 1995, 2,500 children in Nigeria died because they were administered a meningitis vaccine that turned out to be fake. More recently, 84 Nigerian babies died in 2008 after they were given teething medicine that had an ingredient typically found in anti-freeze.