By Nna Anulumadu
Awka: The Member representing Onitsha South 1 in the Anambra State House of Assembly, Hon. Fred Chigozie Ezenwa, has called on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and Governor Charles Chukwuma Soludo to intervene in the current NAFDAC action at Ogbogwu Market. NAFDAC has imposed a fee of N700,000 on traders to reopen their shops.
The lawmaker recalled that NAFDAC stormed Ogbogwu Market on February 7, 2025, and cordoned it off with security agents to sanitize the market of fake and counterfeit drugs. Between February 8 and March 8, 2025, the agency forced open traders’ shops, searching for illicit drugs. At the end of the exercise, they claimed to have recovered 50 trailer loads of counterfeit drugs and locked up the market.
Initially, NAFDAC imposed a fee of N500,000 on the traders to reopen their shops, but later reviewed it upwards to N700,000 for each Shop. Hon. Ezenwa questioned the rationale behind the payment, noting that the market has about 5,000 shops hosting around 12,000 traders.
The legislator lamented that the closure of the market has put thousands of people out of business, with about 20 traders reportedly dead already due to hardship and heartbreak. The traders, who are Taxpayers, are struggling to make ends meet and find it difficult to put food on the table.
Hon. Ezenwa urged President Tinubu and Governor Soludo to investigate NAFDAC’s activities at the market and call the Agency to order to enable full trading to resume. He also appealed to NAFDAC’s Director-General, Prof. Adeyeye, to reconsider their decision and have a rethink over the compulsory fee imposed on the traders.
The lawmaker suggested that this four months closure of the market and the Consequential loss of their articles of trade is enough punishment. Over 85℅ of the traders in the market deal on genuine medicals and should be allowed to reopen their shops. The prolonged closure of the market has not only affected the traders’ livelihood, but also constituting a great loss to the Nigeria, Southeast, and Anambra economy.
On his advice to the traders, Hon Ezenwa pleaded with them to avoid selling or distribution of fake, illicit, counterfeit and unwholesome drugs due to their adverse effect on humans. Since fake drugs destroy human life, why do people still deal on such medicines?
