• Intersociety says NAFDAC DG, its South-East Director and other top officials involved must submit themselves to public accountability by stepping down for thorough and unbiased investigations into the Agency’s operational illegalities at Onitsha Drug Market

• Advocates that N3b-N3.5b extorted or forcefully collected must be refunded to their estimated 2,500 – 3000 payers at the Market with 20% interest

The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) under the watch of Prof Moji Adeyeye has finally bowed to pressure, announced the unconditional reopening of Onitsha Drug Market and ordered all market stalls to be re-opened unconditionally.

The International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law (Intersociety) broke the news via a statement issued on Thursday in Onitsha, the commercial hub of Anambra State, saying: “it was a tumultuous joy and celebration on Wednesday, May 28, 2025 at the Onitsha Drug Market when a high-powered NAFDAC delegation escorted by some heavily armed personnel, believed to be officers and personnel of the Department of the State Security Services (SSS) stormed the Market and ordered all shops under lock and key since Feb 9, 2025 by NAFDAC to be unconditionally re-opened.”

Giving more details, Intersociety said in the statement signed by its Head, Emeka Umeagbalasi; Head, Democracy and Good Governance, Chinwe Umeche, Esquire; and Head, Religious Freedom and Human Rights, Chidinma Evangeline Udegbunam, Esquire:

The Onitsha Drug Market is presently 14,000-Person strong, comprising about 7,000 business owners occupying about 5000 market stalls and packing stores and estimated 7,000 others comprising apprentices, salesgirls, hawkers and others providing menial services.

It is also recalled that we at Intersociety have consistently led the way in the campaign for the unconditional re-opening of the Market and public accountability by NAFDAC regarding its militarist, extortionist and collective punishment operations in the Market. We further submitted more than ten public interest petitions and issued several media statements thereto. The letters were successfully sent to relevant top government establishments including NAFDAC DG (twice), Gov Charles Soludo of Anambra State (twice), Minister of Health (twice), Police IGP, Army Chief of Staff, DG-SSS, the NSA, Senate and House of Reps Committees on Health and NAFDAC, the Senator, representing Anambra North Senatorial District, House of Reps Members representing the Ogbaru and the Onitsha Federal Constituencies as well as the Speaker, Anambra State House of Assembly.

Disappointingly, even though the referenced public interest petitions were attached with far-reaching findings, demands and recommendations and under extreme urgency and public importance, only those addressed to the Anambra State House of Assembly Speaker, Hon Afam Ogene and Senator Tony Nwoye received a degree of legislative attention. Shockingly, NAFDAC DG received hers twice with evidential proofs of delivery but chose to ignore them till date. Time and space may not allow us at Intersociety to reproduce mind-boggling findings and far-reaching recommendations made or reflected in the referenced public interest petitions.

Apart from the referenced petitions of ours including those dated February 24 and 25, 2025 and April 29, 2025, and several media statements connected thereto; we have also been following the goings-on at the Market including reading and analyzing recent statements by NAFDAC DG, Prof Mojisola Christianah Adeyeye who was first appointed for five-year tenure as NAFDAC DG on Dec 1, 2017 and re-appointed for second and final term on Dec 1, 2022. The NAFDAC DG’s referenced statements included that of May 26, 2025, in which she falsely accused a leading social media influencer, “Very Dark Man” (Martins Vicent Otse) of “colluding with fake drug merchants and inciting public unrest”.

As if that was not enough, the NAFDAC DG exhibited a culture of incorrigibility and went further to incite security agencies against Activist Citizen Martins Vicent Otse (Very Dark Man) and falsely accused him of “violating the Cyberstalking Act”. The NAFDAC DG had also in the same statement claimed that “the Onitsha Drug Market was re-opened on March 9, 2025, and over 2,500 traders occupying 3,500 shops have resumed operations, having complied with the necessary regulatory procedures” (including payment of the sundry extortionist fees under contention). The NAFDAC DG issued another statement on Tuesday, May 27, 2025, consciously or unwittingly indicting her Agency by admitting the imposition and forceful collection of the sundry extortionist fees she tagged: “administrative fee of N5m (per product/brand) for selling unregistered (multinational) products which was later reduced to N200,000 after pleas” She also admitted that her Agency collected another extortionist fee tagged: a separate N2m charge for violating Good Storage and Distribution Practices, also reduced to N500,000”.

Contrary to the National Agency for Food and Drug Control and Administration’s DG’s claims, there are three major types or categories of extortion fees introduced and enforced by the Agency at Onitsha Drug Market; namely: “Poor Storage Fee of N700,000” for every market store owner and a separate “N200,000 Poor Storage Fee” for every packing store owner at the Market. Third extortionist fee is labeled: “N200,000 charge for each multinational drug or product and its wholesaler including lifesaving and food and body system supplement drugs or products unregistered by NAFDAC”. Imposed, too, was self-incriminating undertakings made mandatory for every payer-trader at the Market.

In other words, a wholesaler of such products who has “complied with NAFDAC’s extortionist conditions” is likely to have paid the Agency as follows: N1.4m (for having not registered each of brands or products) if he or she has seven brands or products; another N200,000 (for poor storage) if he or she has a packing store and another N700,000 (for poor storage) if he or she has a market store. We have also investigated and found that NAFDAC effected the collection of the sundry extortionist fees by using the Agency’s CBN-linked account number and details as follows: Account Name: NAFDAC Project TSA; Account No. 3000063142; Bank: Central Bank of Nigeria; Payment Channel: Real Time Gross Settlement. The referenced CBN-linked NAFDAC’s TSA account was found to have been blocked hours after the unconditional re-opening of the Market on Wednesday, May 28, 2025, and abrupt cancellation of the sundry extortionist payment exercise.

Inside NAFDAC’s Copy Of Operational Illegalities:

It is further reminded fact that NAFDAC has a canopy of operational illegalities and gross conducts in the Market to deal with to restore public confidence in its statutory operations. Inside the canopy of the Agency’s operational illegalities at the Onitsha Drug Market include (1) breaking into traders’ shops and packing stores in their absence and carting away, seizing and confiscating container-loads of unexpired and pharmaceutically supplied and certified products including multinational lifesaving and food and body system supplement drugs worth hundreds of billions of naira; (2) false labeling of the entire traders of the Market as “merchants of fake drugs” and the Market as “headquarters of fake drugs in Nigeria”; (3) commercialization and corruption of the Agency’s operations at Onitsha Drug Market no thanks to the Agency’s deployed soldiers of the Nigerian Army and police personnel, including strong allegations of diversion and selling of the seized products running into tens, if not hundreds of millions of naira and swelling of the deployed perpetrators’ bank accounts; (4) carting away and diversion of huge cash sums running into tens, if not hundreds of millions of naira, left behind by traders in their market stalls; (5) massive looting of trading and feeding items belonging to non-drug traders at the Market including boutiques, fast food shops, liquor and soft drink outlets, etc. These are to mention but few.

Commendation: It is therefore very important to note that the unconditional re-opening of the Onitsha Drug Market has arisen following consistent outcries from VDM (Martins Vicent Otse), His Excellency, Mr. Peter Obi, Senator Tony Nwoye, Hon Afam Ogene, Sir Ifeanyi Ejiofor Esquire, an international Human Rights Lawyer, leaders of Intersociety, a cross section of the Nigerian media including print, electronic, audio-visual, online and digital; the Unite Nigeria Group led by Sir Peter Okala, the South-East CD and HURIDE led by Comrade Uzor A. Uzor, the Anambra CLO led by Comrade Vincent Ezekwueme, the Njenje Media TV, selected leaders of the Onitsha Drug Market (intelligence supply) and other Human Rights Activists including Comrades Damian Ogudike, Chibueze Nwajiaku, Chinenye Nwamebe, etc. We at Intersociety hereby thank them immensely and assure them of our continuing resilient and relentless display of lead-capacity in matters of research and investigation including our ongoing investigative roles in the Onitsha Drug Market-NAFDAC faceoff and the latter’s unaddressed operational illegalities.

Calls: It is therefore our position that the NAFDAC DG (Prof Mojisola Christianah Adeyeye), Dr Martins Iluyomade (South-East Director) and other top officials of the Agency have lost moral ground to continue as sworn members of “the NAFDAC Council”. They are hereby called upon to honorably step down or be suspended by relevant authorities including the Minister of Health and Social Welfare to ensure unbiased, thorough and conclusive investigations into the Agency’s activities at Onitsha Drug Market. The N3b-N3.5b extortionist fees paid by 2,500-3000 affected traders must be refunded with 20% interest. Strongly condemned is indiscriminate resort by NAFDAC and other Government Agencies to the abrogated Cyberstalking Act of 2015, now used as instruments of State terror. The rush with which the Anambra State Police Command went into the matter and took side is a clear case in point and strongly condemned. It is shocking that the Anambra State Police Command is starkly ignorant of the amendments carried out in 2024 in the Cyberstalking Act of 2015, now cited as “Cyberstalking Act (as amended) 2024” in which its draconian Section 24 was surgically operated upon and most of State terror provisions deleted.