At least four persons have been confirmed dead in Benue State after they were administered with fake injection. Director-General of the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control, (NAFDAC), Dr. Paul Orhii who disclosed this yesterday, said the victims died in Gboko, Makurdi and Otukpo Local Government Areas of Benue State after fake procaine penicillin and gentamycin injection were administered on them.
Orhii who made this known at a one-day Consumer Awareness and Sensitization Forum held in Gboko, urged Nigerians to stand up against the fakers of drugs in Nigerian, stressing that drug fakers were worse than armed robbers. While regretting the porous nature of Nigerian borders, the NAFDAC boss noted that the development was making it easier for fakers of drugs to penetrate the rural communities of the country.
“NAFDAC, as an agency responsive to the needs of the people, has decided to bring it’s campaign to Gboko because the rural areas were where the poor, uneducated and vulnerable largely reside,” he stated. He lamented that fakers of drugs were becoming more sophisticated and daring, adding that Nigeria carried a heavy disease burden as traffickers in fake drugs were now targeting the country.
He, however, hinted that the Agency had approached the Federal Government for a N200billion pharmaceutical intervention fund to help provide funds for pharmaceutical companies to aid the production of drugs locally. Orhii maintained that the fund, when finally approved, would be readily available and accessible to pharmaceutical companies in the country to aid the production of drugs and thereby discourage the importation of fake drugs