The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control said it has destroyed regulated products worth over N1.5tn in a single coordinated operation across Lagos and the South-East between February and March 2025, as part of a wider crackdown that has seen it destroy or seize more than N1.54tn worth of fake and substandard goods nationwide since 2023.

The Director-General of NAFDAC, Prof. Mojisola Adeyeye, speaking on Monday in Lagos, said that NAFDAC noted the recent public outcry over fake and substandard regulated products in the country. In a passionate address, Adeyeye called counterfeiters “merchants of death” and vowed zero tolerance.

This followed a Saturday PUNCH report that NAFDAC and the Standards Organisation of Nigeria were under pressure over rampant counterfeited products, including consumer goods, foods, drugs and cosmetics, suspected to be fake, substandard and dangerous. https://punchng.com/outcry-as-fake-products-flood-markets/

Adeyeye said simultaneous raids at Idumota and Onitsha markets and the Ariaria International Market in Aba led to the seizure and destruction of counterfeit and substandard products loaded in over 137 40-foot trucks.

She said, “Between February and March 2025, across Idumota, Onitsha and Ariaria Market, Aba, NAFDAC coordinated and simultaneously executed major raids which led to seizure and destruction of over 137 40-foot truckloads of counterfeit and substandard products valued at more than N1.5tn were evacuated and destroyed.”

The agency also listed a series of destruction exercises targeting fake and expired medicines. In February 2026, NAFDAC said it destroyed over N15bn worth of fake, expired, counterfeit and banned medicines in Ibadan, Oyo State, including Analgin, Co-codamol, codeine syrups, Tramadol, Oxytocin and expired vaccines, and arrested a suspect linked to a smuggled container.

In December 2024, the agency noted that it destroyed expired and unregistered drugs worth N11bn, also in Ibadan. In March 2026, it destroyed N1.8bn worth of counterfeit medicines, banned sachet alcohol below 200ml, narcotics, antibiotics, antimalarials, counterfeit milk, skin-lightening creams, fake insecticides and medical devices in Kuje, Abuja. Combined, the drug and pharmaceutical-related destructions alone amounted to N27.8bn.

Further, NAFDAC said it separately destroyed counterfeit beverages, spirits and revalidated foods worth N5bn in Aba, Abia State, in December 2023 after shutting down 150 shops. A repeat raid in the same location in December 2024 shut down 250 shops and uncovered N7bn worth of similar products, bringing the combined value of the Aba beverage and food destructions to N12bn.

Adeyeye noted that, in 2024 alone, the street market value of products destroyed nationwide was over N120bn.

Meanwhile, the NAFDAC boss, alongside the Director of Investigation and Enforcement, Iluyomade Martins, said the agency secured 64 convictions for counterfeiting across the country, with sentences ranging from one to seven years’ imprisonment without the option of a fine.

Adeyeye listed specific terms secured between June 2025 and June 2026, including five years for faking Global Fund Artemether, five years for a cough and cold syrup containing codeine, 12 months for fake ointments and condoms, and seven years for fake antibiotics.

She said, “NAFDAC’s record for 2023-present shows it has responded with billions in seizures, hundreds of arrests, dozens of convictions, and trillion-naira destructions.”

Adeyeye said the agency’s Post-Market Surveillance Directorate visited 6,233 facilities and mopped up 7,210 brands and products nationwide between May and July 2026, cutting across food and water, drugs and herbals, medical devices, vaccines and biologics, cosmetics, healthcare products and chemicals.

She noted that Food and Water recorded the highest number of products mopped up, with 3,633 products from 1,808 facilities, while Drugs and Herbals recorded the highest number of facilities visited, with 2,084 facilities yielding 2,459 products.

Further, the DG said the agency had uncovered the counterfeiting of CWAY dispenser bottles by three companies that refilled empty 19-litre bottles bearing the identity of a registered water company with water from unapproved sources, and supplied them to hotels and supermarkets without authorisation. She said the operators had been heavily sanctioned.

Adeyeye said the agency’s mandate did not extend to creating “a society entirely free of criminals and criminal-minded individuals,” noting that fresh farm produce such as apples, grapes and oranges fell outside NAFDAC’s exclusive regulatory control and were the responsibility of the Nigeria Agricultural Quarantine Service.

She said NAFDAC did not have direct and absolute regulatory oversight over unbranded palm oil, fufu and other staple foods packaged traditionally and sold in open markets. The NAFDAC boss called on sub-national authorities to join the agency in ensuring the safety of such products.

“Fakers are not ghosts; they exist within our communities, neighbourhoods, and business premises,” Adeyeye said. She described the fight against counterfeiting as a collective responsibility involving NAFDAC, sister agencies and the public.

Adeyeye urged Nigerians to report suspected non-compliant products through the agency’s Call Centre rather than relying solely on social media, listing the enquiry line as 0700-1-NAFDAC (0700-1-623322) and the complaint line as 0800-1-NAFDAC (0800-1-623322).

She concluded that the agency had, in the past, called for stricter penalties under the NAFDAC Act and the Counterfeit and Fake Drugs Act, including the death penalty or life imprisonment for those who produce and sell fake regulated products.