Anambra drug traders protest market closure by NAFDAC
Protesters claim that no fewer than five traders have died and several others have been hospitalised due to depression and hunger.
Traders at the Ogbo-Ogwu Bridgehead Drug Market in Onitsha, Anambra State, on Tuesday protested the continuous closure of their shops by the National Agency for Food, Drug Administration, and Control.
The traders, under the aegis of Concerned and Genuine Members of Ogbo-Ogwu Drug Market, lamented that the development has brought untold hardship and financial burdens upon them.
The aggrieved protesters, in their numbers carried placards with different inscriptions and marched around the market starting from Oshogbo Park, up to the River Niger Bridge, Onitsha, and back to Uga Junction, claiming that no fewer than five traders have died and several others have been hospitalized due to depression and hunger.
They alleged that NAFDAC is demanding N2 million from each person before they would reopen the market.
While addressing journalists during the protest, the National Convener/Secretary of Concerned Genuine Members of Ogbo-Ogwu Drugs Market, Ifeanyi Chinedu, said their shops are still under lock and key, contrary to NAFDAC’s claims that it has reopened them.
Chinedu urged the Federal Government to prevail on NAFDAC to reopen the market and also investigate claims of seizure of fake drugs, insisting that NAFDAC officials illegally invaded their shops in their absence and carted away genuine registered drugs of over 60 trailer loads from the various shops.
