Dr Osagie Ehanire, Minister of Health, has lamented the damage to and looting of the Zonal/State Offices of the National Agency for Food and Drugs Administration and Control (NAFDAC) in Kaduna.
Ehanire said this in a statement, signed by Olujimi Oyetomi, Director, Media in the ministry, on Tuesday in Abuja.
The minister described the development as devastating and worse than could be imagined, saying “nothing was left behind. Furniture, fixtures, and fittings were all destroyed”.
“It will take several years to get the place back to normal and it will cost us a lot of money.”
Ehanire was accompanied on a visit to the zonal/state office by the Director General of NAFDAC, Prof. Moji Adeyeye, some officials of the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) and Federal Ministry of Health.
They were in Kaduna to inspect the looted and vandalised NAFDAC facility for assessment and to find ways to overcome the losses sustained in the place.
“The Kaduna NAFDAC Training Centre as well as the Zonal/State Offices came under attack by some hoodlums in the wake of the #ENDSARS protests.
“The looters were in search of stored COVID-19 palliatives with several Government stores as targets,’’ he said.
The minister said that one of the issues of concern to him was that some of the looted drugs have “expired” and “some are fake”.
He said some were supposed to have been destroyed and some prohibited, saying that the entry of these into circulation is a source of concern.
“Those who carted them away might be ignorant of the effects it could have on their own health and the general health of Nigerians,’’ he said.
Ehanire, however, disclosed that the option left for the authorities might be to engage the Police to look out for such items with the aim of retrieving them.
He called on the looters to return the loots for professional destruction.
