On the Abidjan-Lagos corridor, the Nigeria Customs Service, NCS Seme Area Command, today confiscated unregistered pharmaceutical products worth N27.8 million.
At a news conference on Wednesday in Semé, the Controller in charge of the Command, Mr Dera Nandi, made this announcement.
Speaking to reporters, he said: “On May 9, my guys stopped a truck with the licence plate GL 6663 GH that was transporting illegal drugs along the Abidian-Lagos Corridor.
Nandi said: “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.”
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Nnadi said the seized pharmaceutical products had a Duty Paid Value (FPV) of N27,861,538.
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.
Comptroller Dera Nandi of Seme Area Command of Nigeria Customs Service, displaying seized unregistered pharmaceutical products in Seme.
The News Agency of Nigeria reports that Nnadi used the opportunity to hand over 553 parcels of cannabis sativa, seized by his men on April 21 to the officials of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA).
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 Seme Command of Customs for handing over the dangerous drugs to the command.
NAN
