No fewer than 100 truckloads of drugs have been destroyed in Awka, Anambra state by the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC).
The drugs were seized at the bridgehead Market in Onitsha and Aba, Abia state by the agency.
The combined value of the burnt drugs, according to the agency, was worth over one trillion naira.
According to the Director General of NAFDAC, Prof Moji Adeyeye, they were confiscated during the month-long operation carried out by the agency and security officials.
Adeyeye was represented by the Southeast Zonal Director, Martins Iluyomade .
The destruction was done at the ASWAMA destruction site in Awka.
Adeyeye said the action taken by NAFDAC had saved millions of lives of Nigerians, stating that the drugs were among the highest in the world at a single exercise.
Adeyeye said: “We as an Agency, have come to realize that the time has come for us to put an end to the circulation of substandard and falsified medicines in Nigeria.
“People have cried and we have listened and that is why we are working in such a way that Nigerians can go to bed and sleep, knowing that whatever medicine they take is safe, certified and effective
“We also saw medicines that had been banned and we wondered about the obsession with them. There are also in circulation, narcotic medicines, including tramadol and these are the things that promote insecurity in the country. Also, many a time, people had used different medicines only to get treatment failures, which, in turn, cause economic failures for the country,” she said.