NAFDAC DG, Prof. Mojisola Adeyeye, Insists on Death Penalty for Fake Drug Dealers

For the second time within a month, the Director-General of the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), Professor Mojisola Adeyeye, has powerfully advocated for the imposition of the death penalty for fake drug dealers as a necessary condition to curb the epidemic of fake and adulterated drugs ravaging the land.

The no-nonsense NAFDAC boss made the declaration on Arise Television Primetime programme on Monday, vigorously reaffirming her stance that fake and adulterated drug dealers richly deserve the death penalty because, according to her, they aojisola Adeyeyere “merchants of death”.

Adeyeye argued that the extant penalties were grossly insufficient and too lenient to deter the merchants of death who, through their illicit trade, prioritise profit over human lives.

“Somebody violated the NAFDAC rule, the medicine can kill somebody, and you give that person five years in jail or #250,000 fine,” she declared. “To me, that’s weak. We’ve got to strengthen or make the penalty very stiff.”

“It is all about deterrence,” she continued. “If somebody kills another person and that person is not repentant, maybe that person should be killed also.”

The NAFDAC Director-General dispelled fears about possibility of wrongful convictions, saying NAFDAC has inbuilt mechanism for due diligence to test the integrity of medications produced for use in the country.

“…In terms of the use of bad medicine, we have laboratories. We can also not just rely on our laboratory.

“We can do interlaboratory proficiency testing. We send it to other labs.  It is science. Science doesn’t lie. If it is there that this medicine or this particular product has nothing inside it, that’s not a wrongful conviction. It is a deserving conviction.”

Prof. Adeyeye highlighted the importance of strategic partnerships in combating the menace of fake drugs, adding: “Out of our national action plan is having a strategic partnership.

“We have signed an MOU with Customs. We are working closer now than ever with Customs… It’s a strategic partnership.”

NAFDAC, she recalled, also recently signed an MOU with the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA).

“We have signed an MOU with the NDLEA so that we work together and put Nigeria firs,” she said. “Nigeria first, not NAFDAC first, not Customs first.

“Our motto in NAFDAC is customer-focused and agency-minded. You are customer-focused, agency-minded and means you love Nigeria. And you love Nigeria, you love your fellow human being.”