Fake Doctor and Counterfeit Medicine Hawkers Arrested in Nigeria
In Nigeria, a 40 year old fake Cameroonian doctor has been arrested administering counterfeit medication to patients in a local hospital, and 400 people have been implicated in a N70 million conspiracy to sell counterfeit drugs.
The supposed doctor, Kweken Allen Blaise, from Cameroon, collaborated with Yahaya Jidda, from Taraba State, confessed to smuggling fake medication through Togo and making more than N500,000. National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) officials arrested them, and will turn them over to police, reported the Tribune.
NAFDAC Director-General, Dr Paul Orhii, said the arrest happened on a tip from the public, and urged citizens to help win the fight against counterfeit drugs gave by reporting counterfeiters to the agency.
NAFDAC Deputy Director, Kaduna office, Mr. Ahemen Innocent, said that 40-year-old Kwekam Allen Blaise and Yahaya Jida, 30, were arrested by the agency’s officials at their Central Medical Traditional China Clinic at Pambegua, Kaduna State following the tip.
He said Jidda was arrested in Jalingo, Taraba State previously for counterfeiting. The two men were discovered allegedly selling counterfeit medications from China to patients.
“We discovered one ramshackle building and when we entered we discovered that they were actually dispensing drugs there, “said Innocent. “We learnt that later in the night his accomplice showed up at the police station and he was also arrested. They both claimed to be doctors. They were issuing cards to patients. In fact, when we got to their clinic we found the whole placed crowded with patients.”
Meanwhile in Sokoto, NAFDAC announced that 400 people had been implicated in a N70 million conspiracy of counterfeit drugs, reported All Africa.
Dr. Orhii said the agency burned the confiscated drugs, which had been collected using different regulatory agencies to affect the seizure. He went on to say that counterfeit medications are causing illness and death among Nigerians.
Concluded Dr. Orhii, “Thus, it is against this background that NAFDAC has stepped up its surveillance and enforcement activities at the various border posts in the country in order to contain the increasing wave of cross border smuggling and hawking of spurious products.”