. pegs confiscated goods at N500bn
By Chuks Eke
A socio-political organisation, Unite Nigeria Group, UNG, has slammed the National Agency for Food, Drug Administration and Control, NAFDAC over what they termed as invasion of the ‘Ogbo Ogwu Market’ at the Bridgehead Onitsha, Anambra State.
The group in a statement signed by the National convener, Sir Peter Okala, on behalf of the Board of Trustees, BoT, insisted that due process was not followed in the operation led by the South East Zonal Director of NAFDAC Dr. Martins Iluyomade.
NAFDAC had on February 10, this year, raided the famous Drug Market, carting away drugs and other consumables worth billions of Naira.
The UNG maintained that the NAFDAC as a creation of the law should operate within the confines of extant laws and regulations.
It also alleged that huge sums of money left by the affected business owners and POS operators in their various shops were taken away by those suspended to be NAFDAC Operatives that carried out the raid.
“Though we cannot stop NAFDAC or any security agency from carrying out investigation of a crime if any but our members at Ogbo Ogwu Market, Niger Bridge head Onitsha, should not be humiliated before the members of the general public, their shops broken into, in their absence and without a Valid Court Order or Search Warrant and their goods confiscated and carted away to unknown Destination”.
“The Acts of the respondents against our members at Ogbo Ogwu Market Niger Bridge head Onitsha is a denial of our members’ Rights to personal liberty, Right to fair hearing, Right to secure and own movable properties anywhere in the country as well as have infringed on our members Right to human dignity”.
The UNG, disclosed that NAFDAC invaded the market without any Court Order or Search Warrant and “confiscated goods worth ₦500 billion and carted them away to an unknown destination without a Court Order or Search Warrant”.
According to the statement, the NAFDAC raid has “crippled over 2,000 businesses and thrown the traders whose shops were broken into in their absence without any valid Court Order and Search Warrant into penury .
“The drugs and other materials confiscated and carted away so far by the NAFDAC and is estimated at over five hundred billion naira”.
It hinted that apart from the ‘Ogbo Ogwu’ (Drug Market), the Timber, Fashion, Plumbing, Chemical Tools and Chain Saw, Surgical and Hospital equipment, Oduigbo and Provisions markets were also sealed, throwing hundreds iof thousands of traders and their dependants into untold hardship at a time Nigerians are grappling with unwarranted economic challenges.
The statement also added that, “you may recall that on 10th February 2025 a combined team of NAFDAC Operatives, Agents, as well as armed soldiers drawn from the Onitsha Military Cantonment under the auspices of NAFDAC raided and sealed the popular Ogbo Ogwu Market, Niger Bridge Head Onitsha, Anambra State, broke into traders shops, confiscated goods worth ₦500 billion and carted them away to an unknown destination without a valid Court Order or Search Warrant”.
The group argued that, before the 10th February raid, the shops affected, were not under any NAFDAC or Police investigation, disclosing that “the drugs carted away by NAFDAC Operatives include “alcoholic and none alcoholic beverages, cosmetics, chemicals, as well as Analgestic tablets and other pharmaceutical products”.
UNG alleged further that NAFDAC recruited some of the traders in the market to spy against those perceived to be doing well, thereby relying on false information induced by envy.
“It should be placed on record that NAFDAC Operatives have their spies in the market and some of these spies are jealous of some of their fellow traders who are doing well in genuine business and more successful than them and are therefore out to pull them down by collaborating with NAFDAC”, the UNG posited.
Also faulting the Agency’s claim that the confiscated drugs were fake, the group noted that, “about 90 percent of the drugs and beverages confiscated by NAFDAC in this Operation were all imported from Europe and America.
“Where were NAFDAC, CUSTOMS, the Immigration and other security agencies when these goods passed through our country’s borders into the Nigerian markets without detection or seizure from the importers?
“Traders whose goods were confiscated and carted away are innocent traders doing their legitimate businesses and should not be punished unjustly. The rule of engagement employed in this exercise in all the markets in the South East Zone is highly condemnable since there was no Valid Court Order or search warrant that authorised NAFDAC Operatives to break into traders shops in their absence, confiscate their goods and cart them away to undisclosed location.
“His Excellency President and Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces, President Ahmed Bola Tinubu promised us a very strong economy but if the only way to have that is in breach of the Fundamental Rights of UGN members it’s bad and should not be allowed”.
“Our members whose goods were confiscated and carted away without any valid Court Order did not commit any crime by dealing in imported products and/or goods which legitimately passed through the Nigerian borders without any seizure by security agencies”.
“NAFDAC has no laboratory equipped with Modern equipment to do proficiency testing of some of these pharmaceutical products confiscated to ascertain the genuineness or otherwise of some of these products confiscated from members shops not only at Ogbo Ogwu Market, Niger Bridge head Onitsha but the entire markets in the South East Zone”.
They therefore urged the Director General of NAFDAC Professor Mojisola Adeyeye, who had confirmed the raid of the Onitsha Drug Market, as well as confiscation of large quantities of goods to retrace their steps, reopen the market and allow genuine traders to go back to their businesses.
