Unregistered pharmaceutical products worth N27.8 million on the Abidjan-Lagos corridor has been seized by the Nigeria Customs Service, NCS, Seme Area Command.
The Controller in charge of the Command, Mr Dera Nandi, disclosed this seizure during a news conference in Semé. Nnadi said the seized pharmaceutical products had a Duty Paid Value (FPV) of N27,861,538.
Speaking to newsmen, he said; “On May 9, my men while conducting stop and search along Abidjan-Lagos Corridor, intercepted a truck with registration number GL 6663 GH conveying unregistered pharmaceuticals.
“The truck was taken to the station at Seme for proper examination and upon the conduct of the examination, the following unregistered pharmaceutical products were discovered.
“Morphine sulfate 100ml x 1076 bottles, Amodiaquine suspension 60ml x 94 bottles, Vermox 500mg x 2970 packages x 1 sachet x 1 tablet and Mepacrine tablets 100mg x 390 packets x 1000 tablets.
“Others are Clofenac SR 100mg x 298 packets x sachets x 10 tablets, Losartail Potassium 50mg x packages x 2 sachets x 28 tablets and Virest 400 Aciclovir tablets BP x 499 packages x 5 sachets x 5 tablets,” he said.
He said the offence contravened both NCS banning the importation of pharmaceutical products through the land border without approval and the NAFDAC laws because they did not have registration numbers.
He added that five of the seven seized pharmaceutical products had expired.
“The Command and indeed every Nigerian is worried about this particular seizure, considering the dangerous use of morphine which is a derivate of opium. These drugs can be deployed to illicit use to aid criminals.
“Let me reiterate our commitment to fight smuggling under any guise and also assure that those violating the rules will continue to be sanctioned as we remain resolute at ensuring adequate surveillance of our borders,” he said.
Receiving the items, Abubakar Wada, the Unit Commander of the NDLEA Seme command, said the hard drugs would be investigated before destroying them.
Wada said the seizure would further reduce the consumption of hard drugs by the people in the country.
He commended the Customs for handing over the dangerous drugs to the command.
