By Ikeugonna Eleke
The leaders and traders at Onitsha Drug Market Bridgehead (Ogbogwu), Anambra State, have denied allegations that they were back into the sale of fake drugs after the Prof Dora Akunyili-led National Agency for Food, Drug Administration and Control, NAFDAC, closed the market in 2007.
The traders debunked the claims by a group known as Concerned Committee of Friends in the market, alleging that fake drugs were still being sold in the market, and that some suspected fake drug dealers hijacked the caretaker leadership and currently working against the scheduled election in the market.
The Chairman of the Market Mr. Anthony Ezioba, and the Public Relations Officer (PPRO) Mr. MaryChaplet Igboameze, in a press conference in Onitsha called on Governor Willie Obiano and the police to investigate the allegation and make the accusers to produce those fake drug dealers in the market.
Ezioba stated that, ‘Since 2007 when the market was shut down by NAFDAC over alleged fake drugs, the market was rid of fake drugs and unwholesome products. The leadership of the market since then has maintained sanity in the market without looking at faces or who was involved.
‘Between December 26 and December 29, 2019, the leadership of the market handed over 9 trucks of expired drugs to the NAFDAC which were willingly brought to their office by the traders due to long lasting agreement and understanding with the agency to sustain sanity in the market.’
Ezioba warned politicians in the market to desist from using very sensitive matters as their campaign strategy that would create unnecessary tension in the market, stressing that NAFDAC had waded into the matter to ascertain the truth of the fake drug dealers in the market.
On the election, he said that the caretaker executive members were ready for the April 16, 2020 election as the electoral committee members would be announced this week to start the process of the election.
He lamented that the allegation of the group had unsettled the market and the traders.
