NAFDAC debunks accusations on Onitsha drug market raid

The National Agency for Food, Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), has debunked several accusations by traders of the Onitsha Drug Market, Anambra State, after the raid to sanitize the market, describing it as a “smear campaign”.

The accusations included the imposition of a N2 million fine on each trader before allowing the market to reopen, among others.

Martins Iluyomade, South East zonal director of the agency, said that the market would be reopened on March 7, 2025, after a meeting between officials of the agency, officials of Anambra State government and leaders of market unions on March 6, 2025.

Reacting, Victoria Akudu, the agency’s South East zonal spokesperson, on Friday told BusinessDay that the market had officially been opened, but still closed due to the internal rancor.

“We have reopened the market officially, they are having internal rancour among themselves, they are sanitizing themselves. It is no more NAFDAC that is locking the shops.

Read also: NAFDAC crackdown: 5 dead feared, others hospitalised in Onitsha drug market

“I am telling you that whatever problem they are having is an internal problem, not NAFDAC any longer.

“If you were there, you could see it was actually opened, the security agencies have all left, we have left, so the problem they are having now is internal,” Akudu said.

She noted that the leadership of the market was present when the reopening announcement of the market was made.

On the imposition of a N2 million fine on each trader to resume business activities, Akudu described it as a “false and smear campaign” against the agency.

“You know it is false, that is a smear campaign. It is flying about that we broke into a shop where we looted shoes and clothes.

“We don’t regulate shoes or clothes and there are no shoes or clothes shops inside the drug market, so all these are smear campaigns against NAFDAC,” she reiterated.

Meanwhile, the leadership of the Onitsha Bridge Head Drug Market, under the umbrella body of ‘Ogbogwu Market, Bridge Head, Onitsha,’ has stated that the protesters of continued closure of the market were not genuine members.

A group of traders on March 25, 2025, under the auspices of ‘Concerned Genuine Members of Ogbogwu Drugs Market,’ allegedly led by the duo of Emmanuel Ozoemena and Ifeanyi Chinedu, held a protest against NAFDAC over what they described as continued closure of the drug market.