A few weeks ago, Nigeria witnessed the destruction of over one hundred billion naira worth of fake, banned, counterfeit drugs and unwholesome products following the enforcement activities of the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control, NAFDAC, at the Idumota, Onitsha, Ariara, Ezeuku open drug markets.

In Awka, Anambra State, another trillion worth of such products, containing paediatric and maternal pharmaceuticals allegedly stored in prohibited places, including vaccines, were destroyed.

These mind-boggling discoveries and the “trillion” mentioned by NAFDAC weren’t just numbers; they represent lives at stake, families shattered, and a healthcare system teetering on the brink.

With Nigeria’s fake drugs traced to systemic failure and regulatory collapse, experts have warned that every fake tablet sold in the market or pharmacy is a potential death sentence.

Preventable death

This fake tablet aptly describes Janet’s fate, a young mother of two, who lost her life in a fight against an illness that should have been easily treatable.

Struck by malaria, her husband bought her a “trusted” anti-malarial drug from a community pharmacy. But the medicine, though branded and well-packaged, was fake.

Within 48 hours, Janet’s condition deteriorated.

By the time she reached hospital, it was too late.

An autopsy confirmed the medication she took contained no active ingredients but only a poisonous cocktail masquerading as medicine.

Janet’s story is not unique.

She is one of the many Nigerians who fall victim each year to the country’s unrelenting epidemic of counterfeit and substandard drugs, a menace that experts say is not just a public health crisis, but a national security threat.

Unlike Janet, Amos was lucky to have survived consistent bouts, most of which shot up his blood pressure. Month after month, he was on malaria medication.

For over a year, Amos could not live freely without anti-malarial drugs until he decided to change the pharmacy where he got his drugs. Then, it dawned on him that he had been using fake drugs.

“I almost killed myself with ‘chalk’. I kept pumping my body with paracetamol tablets and fake malaria drugs”, he told Sunday Vanguard.

“I kept changing from one brand to another, and none worked until a colleague advised me to change the pharmacy.

“I did, and things changed. For six months now, I have not suffered malaria.”

Problem

In 2009, 84 Nigerian children died after consuming contaminated teething syrup.

In 2014, a child nearly died from a fake antibiotic. The stories pile up.

Today, fake anti-malarial, antibiotics, drugs for hypertension, diabetes, and maternal medicines like oxytocin remain widespread.

Also, banned products such as Analgin, controlled substances such as Tramadol 225mg, amongst others, still litter Nigeria’s open drug markets, where findings by NAFDAC showed prevalence may be as high as 80 per cent.

Trillion-naira

criminal enterprise

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), 20–30 per cent of medicines in Nigeria may be fake. With a pharmaceutical market estimated at over ¦ 3.35 trillion, this suggests trillions of naira worth of fake drugs is in circulation, putting millions of lives at risk.

Statistics from NAFDAC revealed that during the last enforcement activities, over one hundred 40-foot truckloads were evacuated, with 27 truckloads from Idumota already destroyed, while in Aba and Onitsha markets, about eighty 40-foot truckloads of unregistered, banned medicines and narcotics were seized and evacuated.

For Aba and environs, it was discovered that 14 truckloads of violative medicines were evacuated from the Osisioma warehouse alone, four truckloads from the Ariara Road warehouse and 10 truckloads of the medicines were seized from the markets.

NAFDAC disclosed that in Onitsha, there are 110 lines where they sell drugs, aside from the plumbing market and the wood plank markets.

According to the agency, despite the sensitive nature of drugs, in Onitsha, drugs were stored in warehouses with plumbing materials.

These warehouses were filled to the brim, without windows, with temperatures more than 40 degrees Celsius, subjecting the medicines to degradation before the user starts to use them.

In that plumbing section, NAFDAC claimed that they knew through intelligence, three or four years ago, that something was going on there; they were there with policemen, and a team of staff and police narrowly escaped death.

NAFDAC alleged that the “merchants of death”, masquerading as medicine dealers among the shop owners, mobbed the police and NAFDAC staff to protect their illicit trade.

Specifically, the Director General, Prof Christianah Adeyeye, during a briefing, said the agency evacuated ten 40-foot truckloads of Tramadol from the plumbing, wood plank and the fashion lines of the market, noting with dismay that about four truckloads of syrup with Codeine that was banned almost seven years ago were also evacuated.

Despite these alarming figures, the government’s response has been inconsistent, underfunded, and undermined by policy failures.

The regulatory landscape, led by NAFDAC, remains overburdened and weakened by decades of neglect and poor political will.

Decades of crisis

Findings have shown that China and India remain the top sources of imported counterfeit drugs.

However, with 70 per cent of Nigeria’s pharmaceuticals imported, the country’s dependency has opened the floodgates to criminal networks and “merchants of death” operating with impunity.

Nigeria’s fight against counterfeit drugs goes back to the 1980s.

A WHO-backed study in 1988 found that a third of all drugs in circulation were fake, and seven per cent were fatal upon use.

These revelations led to Decree 21 of 1988.

However, enforcement has been ineffective.

Today, counterfeit drugs continue to flood open markets in Onitsha, Lagos, Aba, and beyond, while government policies meant to address the crisis, like the National Drug Distribution Guidelines (NDDG), remain largely unimplemented.

The Federal Government had, in February 2013, launched the NDDG designed to ensure better distribution of drugs, replace open drug markets, reduce the increasing incidence of fake, adulterated and substandard drugs, facilitate oversight functions of government agencies like NAFDAC and PCN, as well as ensure that all drugs in the system are safe, efficacious, affordable and of good quality.

Ten years after its launch, the NDDG remains a document gathering dust. Only Kano State has taken meaningful action by establishing a Coordinated Wholesale Centre.

Studies have shown that Nigeria is one of the world’s largest markets for fake and counterfeit medicines among developing nations of the world though progress is being made in the war against counterfeiting medicines, as NAFDAC claimed to have reported reduction in counterfeit medicines, from 40 per cent in 2001 to 16.7 per cent in 2005.

However, while it is difficult to put a definite figure on the actual prevalence of fake drugs in the country, in 2019, the NAFDAC Director-General, Prof. Christianah Adeyeye, claimed that 16 per cent of medicines in Nigeria were fake or substandard, with plans to reduce it below the global average of 10 per cent by 2025.

In Nigeria, drugs most faked include antibiotics, anti-malarial, and anti-hypertensive medicines.

However, the failure of government and its regulatory officials to find a permanent solution to the challenge not only puts citizens’ lives at risk but also highlights the systemic issues within the country’s drug regulation and distribution systems, experts revealed.

Porous borders

Despite periodic crackdowns by NAFDAC, such as the recent seizure of hundreds of truckloads of banned, falsified, and substandard drugs from major markets, fake drugs continue to enter Nigeria freely through porous borders, seaports, and airports. Nigeria has continued to struggle with substandard and counterfeit drugs.

A team of drug regulatory officials and policemen, recently, double-crossed a Lagos yellow bus carrying passengers coming from Idumota to Oshodi, Lagos.

Three fully loaded big sacs of Tramadol were discovered in the public bus.

Experts are worried that as long as Nigeria operates chaotic drug distribution channels with weak drug laws and delays in the implementation of the NDDG, Nigerians will continue to pay with their lives.

The Chairman of the Lagos State Medicines Association, Mr. Innocent Ezennaya, said: “The source of these drugs is known. Yet they keep entering because of weak border controls and compromised officials.”

While admitting the recent operations of NAFDAC were aimed at eliminating counterfeit drugs from their environment, Ezennaya said many counterfeit drugs enter the country through these channels despite efforts to control them.

“Some of these unregistered drugs come into the nation through our borders, airports, and seaports. This is where we need more control”, he said.

“Without blocking the source, our efforts will continue to be undermined, and we will keep fighting the way we have been fighting”.

Today, drug hawking under the scorching sun has continued unabated.

Even people who do not have any business selling drugs are into the trade.

According to pharmacists, drugs are poisons and should neither be consumed indiscriminately nor stored at an unfriendly temperature.

Weak Regulation

The current penalties for counterfeiters in Nigeria—a fine of N500, 000 and a five-year jail term—are grossly inadequate.

Experts say this leniency emboldens criminals while insulting victims.

Speaking to Sunday Vanguard, the Chairman of the Association of Community Pharmacists of Nigeria (ACPN), Pharm. Ezeh Ambrose, said: “We need to raise penalties to N50 million and up to 20 years imprisonment. These are not petty crimes; these are mass murders.”

He expressed worry that with porous borders, open drug markets and weak laws, the problem may remain for a long time.

Yet legal reforms remain stalled in the National Assembly.

NAFDAC DG reacts

NAFDAC Director-General, Adeyeye, acknowledged the scale of the challenge.

Adeyeye said she inherited a debilitated agency burdened with debt, outdated equipment, and insufficient manpower.

Adeyeye attributed the persistent fake drug problem in Nigeria to a foundational weakness in regulation. “If you do not have a foundation, it’s a matter of time. The house will collapse”, she said.

She noted inheriting an under-resourced NAFDAC, describing it as an agency with “only the roof on its head with debt, no computers and about 80 per cent of the laboratory equipment was not working. It shows no foundation.”

Highlighting the impact, the DG recalled a near-fatal incident: “That boy almost died because of bad medicine. I knew the regulatory system, there was no foundation.”

Adeyeye further pointed to a significant rise in ineffective essential drugs, with poor-quality oxytocin jumping to a staggering 18 per cent.

Regarding the scale, she stated, “It may be 80 per cent in Onitsha or Idumota.



https://www.vanguardngr.com/2025/04/merchants-of-death-in-trillion-naira-fake-drug-business/