VANGUARD
Some hoodlums on Monday attacked officials of NAFDAC who were on enforcement operations against substandard drugs in Abuja.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the officials were attacked by the hoodlums during a raid at Area 1 Motor Park.
The hoodlums harassed the enforcement officers, including mobile policemen, and stoned the agency’s vehicle, breaking its windscreen.
It took the effort of police officers, who shot into the air several times and released teargas to disperse the hoodlums before journalists and the NAFDAC officers could scamper for safety.
The team leader, Mr Umar-Ahmed Suleiman, an Assistant Chief Regulatory Officer, National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), said the raid followed intelligence received by the agency about the high volume of substandard drugs in the park.
“This exercise that we just conducted today at Area 1 Motor Park is a result of an intelligence report received from DSS in 2023; although we have done some part of it since then, we are trying to conclude the operation.
“You can see a lot of drug hawkers relaxed selling their products and people patronising them, that was why we raided the place.
“What happened is a normal thing to us in the investigation and enforcement unit of NAFDAC.
“That is why anytime we are going, we go with our armed mobile police officers and investigative police officers in case of any arrest.
“On our arrival here today, we swung into action, but to my surprise, we had not even done half of the work when the drug hawkers all absconded, not knowing that they were re-enforcing against NAFDAC…
