By Ikeugonna Eleke
The United Nigeria Group (UNG) has dragged the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) to the Federal High Court in Awka, Anambra State, for the enforcement of their fundamental human rights.
The group is seeking N100 million in damages from NAFDAC.
The court action follows the recent closure of the Onitsha Bridge Head Drug Market (Ogbo Ogwu) by NAFDAC, which sought to clear the market of fake and substandard drugs.
The group contended that not all the traders were involved in the sale of fake and substandard products, insisting that the goods passed through the Customs and the Standards Organization of Nigeria (SON) before reaching Onitsha. According to the group, traders should not be punished for what they described as the fault of the relevant government agencies.
In Suit No. PHC/AWK/CS/40/2025, dated 18/02/2025, against NAFDAC, the applicant stated that NAFDAC broke into their shops without a court order or search warrant and carted away goods and drugs, violating their fundamental rights.
They also requested that the court order NAFDAC to return the goods and drugs that were confiscated and taken away. The court was also asked to restrain NAFDAC or its agents from further breaking into their shops and removing their goods, even as they claimed damages of N100 million.
Addressing journalists on the development, the applicant, Sir Peter Okala, stated that they were challenging NAFDAC’s activities at Ogbo Ogwu because they infringed on their fundamental human rights.
Okala, the National Convener of the United Nigeria Group, said that they were in court to seek the fundamental rights of their members.
Okala, speaking on behalf of the Board of Trustees and members of UNG, said their members’ rights were violated by NAFDAC’s actions.
‘You may recall that on 10th February 2025, a combined team of officers, officials, operatives, agents, as well as armed soldiers drawn from the Onitsha Military Cantonment under the auspices of NAFDAC, raided the popular Ogbo Ogwu Market and Niger Bridge Head, Onitsha, Anambra State. They broke into traders’ shops, confiscated goods worth ₦500 billion, and carted them away to an unknown destination without any notice, court order, or search warrant.
‘Before this raid on 10th February, 2025, the members of the applicants whose shops were involved in the raid were not under any NAFDAC or police investigation whatsoever.
‘However, on 10th February, 2025, NAFDAC raided the popular Ogbo Ogwu Market at Niger Bridge Head, Onitsha, Anambra State, confiscating large quantities of pharmaceutical products, drugs, and other non-consumables from the applicants’ members’ shops without a valid court order or search warrant.
‘The South East Zonal Director of NAFDAC, Dr. Martins Iluyomade, who led the operation, took both market leaders and traders by surprise. NAFDAC operatives, without a valid court order and search warrant, moved from shop to shop, breaking into these shops in the absence of their owners, confiscating and carting away a wide range of drugs and products to an unknown destination.
‘It should be placed on record that NAFDAC operatives have spies in the market, and some of these spies are jealous of fellow traders who are doing well in legitimate business and more successful in business than them. They are therefore out to pull them down by collaborating with NAFDAC.
‘It is a known fact that NAFDAC operatives undertook the raid without a valid court order, based on the false assumption that members of the applicants at Ogbo Ogwu Market were involved in repackaging and re-bagging drugs in the market which is not true.
‘NAFDAC and their operatives have refused to show or provide any applicant member’s shop at Ogbo Ogwu Market where the alleged counterfeit drugs were repackaged or re-bagged.
‘This raid has crippled over 2,000 businesses belonging to members of the United Nigeria Group (UNG), rendering the traders whose shops were broken into in their absence, without any valid court order or search warrant, helpless for life.
‘This raid is not only targeted at UNG members at the Niger Bridge Head, Onitsha, but also at UNG members in other markets in the South East Zone, including Aba, Onitsha, Umuahia, Enugu, Abakaliki, and others.
‘The drugs and other materials confiscated and carted away so far by NAFDAC, without any valid court order and in the absence of shop owners, are estimated to be worth ₦500 billion.
‘The NAFDAC operation at Ogbo Ogwu Market, Niger Bridge Head, Onitsha, has rendered over 2,000 members of UNG out of business, with no other means of livelihood.
‘This NAFDAC raid of Ogbo Ogwu Market, Niger Bridge Head, Onitsha, was carried out without notice to either the Bridge Head Market leadership, Ogbo Ogwu leadership, or the executives of the various lines and associations. It was done in violation of the fundamental rights of members of UNG who were absent during the raid. NAFDAC swooped on unsuspecting traders at the market without any valid court order or search warrant,’ Okala said.
‘This world itself is a marketplace, and humanity in general are all traders, trading in cash or in kind during one’s lifetime on earth. Therefore, any breach of the fundamental rights of any trader at Onitsha, Oshodi, Aba, or Wuse Market in Abuja is an injury to all traders worldwide,’ he further stated.
Okala said about 90 percent of the drugs and beverages confiscated by NAFDAC in the operation at Ogbo Ogwu Market, Niger Bridge Head, Onitsha, without any valid court order, were not made in Nigeria but were all imported from Europe and America.
‘Where were NAFDAC, Customs, Immigration, the Army, and other security agencies when these goods passed through our country’s borders into Nigerian markets without detection or seizure from the importers?
‘Members of UNG whose goods were confiscated and carted away are innocent traders doing their legitimate businesses and should not be punished unjustly.’
‘The rules of engagement for this exercise, the confiscation, and the raid on UNG members’ shops in all markets in the South East Zone are wrong, as there was no valid court order or search warrant that authorized NAFDAC operatives to break into traders’ shops in their absence, confiscate their goods, and cart them away to an undisclosed location.
‘UNG members whose goods were confiscated and carted away without any valid court order did not commit any crime by dealing in imported products and goods which legitimately passed through Nigerian borders without any seizure by security agencies,’ Okala noted.
He said following the crackdown on UNG members’ shops nationwide, the Director-General of NAFDAC, Professor Mojisola Adeyeye, who recently spoke on Arise TV’s prime time, had confirmed the raid at Ogbo Ogwu Market, Onitsha, as well as the confiscation of large quantities of goods from UNG members’ shops.
“The South East Zonal Director of NAFDAC, Dr. Martins Iluyomade, working at the instigation of the Director-General of NAFDAC, has publicly vowed not to stop this raid, confiscation, and carting away of traders’ goods without any valid court order or search warrant at Ogbo Ogwu Market, Niger Bridge Head, Onitsha.
‘NAFDAC has no laboratory equipped with modern equipment to do proficiency testing of some of these pharmaceutical products confiscated to ascertain the genuineness or otherwise of some of the products confiscated from members’ shops, not only at Ogbo Ogwu Market, Niger Bridge Head, Onitsha, but also in the entire markets in the South East Zone,’ he said.
Okala also said that their members at Ogbo Ogwu Market, Niger Bridge Head, Onitsha, were entitled to be heard first before their goods, property, and money could be confiscated and carted away without a valid court order or search warrant by the respondent in their absence.
‘Though we cannot stop NAFDAC or any security agency from carrying out an investigation of a crime, if any, our members at Ogbo Ogwu Market, Niger Bridge Head, Onitsha, should not be humiliated before the public. Their shops should not be broken into in their absence, without a valid court order or search warrant, and their goods should not be confiscated and carted away to an unknown destination.
‘The actions of the respondents against our members at Ogbo Ogwu Market, Niger Bridge Head, Onitsha, are a denial of our members’ right to personal liberty, right to fair hearing, right to secure and own movable property anywhere in the country, and have infringed on our members’ right to human dignity,’ Okala said.
Based on the foregoing, he said, the United Nigeria Group (UNG) approached the Federal High Court in Awka in Suit No: FHC/Awka/CS/40/2025 to enforce the fundamental rights of UNG members at Ogbo Ogwu Market, Niger Bridge Head, Onitsha, against NAFDAC and others.
‘Among other reliefs, we are praying the Honourable Court for a perpetual injunction restraining NAFDAC and others, and N100 million in exemplary and general damages against NAFDAC and others.
‘It is our utmost belief that unless restrained by the Honourable Court, NAFDAC will not desist from breaching the fundamental rights of our members as enshrined in the 1999 Constitution as amended,’ he stated.
When contacted, the Chairman of Bridge Head Drugs Market, Onitsha, Mr. Chukwulota Ndubisi, said the association was holding a stakeholders’ meeting on the matter, contending that those who went to court were not traders at the drugs market.
However, the leader of the United Nigeria Group (UNG), Peter Okala, dismissed Ndubisi’s claims, noting that the majority of the traders belonged to the group, including his Ndubisi’s wife. He insisted that, as Nigerians, they had the right to enforce their human rights.
