Nigerian task force seizes 50M naira of fake drugs

In Nigeria, the Lagos State Task Force on Counterfeit, Fake Drugs and  Unwholesome Processed Foods destroyed fake drugs valued at over 50.0  million naira ($334,043) on March 2, and arrested seven people, reports  the local This Day newspaper. The task force made the arrest during its  raid of illegal pharmaceutical and patent medicine operators along  Ayobo-Ipaja axis, in the Ayobo-Ipaja Local Council Development Area.

Commissioner for Health, Jide Idris, who disclosed this in Lagos, said  the raid was necessitated by the incessant incursion of unqualified and  unscrupulous profiteers into drug business, thereby exposing a great  number of unsuspecting Lagosians to the grave dangers posed by the  menace of quackery and outright sale of fake drugs, occasioned by greed  and total disregard for human lives and safety.

He said the tests were necessitated by recent development where no fewer  than 10 people within the Ajah axis died following their consumption of  local concoction known as "Ogogoro," adding that prior to the arrests,  laboratory tests conducted by the state government on sample purchased  at several locations in Lagos have revealed that some of the local  concoctions had dangerous bacteria in them.