The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) on Friday destroyed expired and fake drugs worth N50 million in Sokoto.
The items were burnt at Kwannawa dump site near old Post Office in Dange-Shuni Local Government Area of the state.
Adamu Garba, NAFDAC state coordinator, said the agency, through the exercise, aims to sanitise Nigeria of counterfeits, expired and unregulated products.
“The products being destroyed today are made up of fake/counterfeit drugs, substandard and expired food products, cosmetics and regulated products seized by NAFDAC while some surrendered voluntarily by shop owners.
“This exercise is in public private partnership with drugs sellers, union members as about 80 per cent of destroyed products were voluntarily surrendered by them,’’ Mr Garba said.
He commended security agencies for their support and vowed the agency’s continued enforcement of sanctions.
The exercise was attended by NAFDAC Governing Board member, Tukur Sarkin Fada Tambuwal and Abdullahi Dikko, the Director of Reaserch and Statistics, Sokoto State Ministry of Environment.
Others are Nasiru Abdu from Sokoto State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA) and the representative of medicine vendors, Ogbu Batholomew.