The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) has issued a stern caution to social media personality VeryDarkMan (VDM) over comments the agency described as inciting and misleading regarding its enforcement activities.
In a statement released Monday and signed by NAFDAC’s Director-General, Professor Mojisola Adeyeye, the agency criticised the influencer’s viral video, which it said misrepresented recent regulatory actions in Onitsha Bridge Head Market and could potentially violate Nigeria’s Cybercrime Act.
“What this perpetrator has done is that he has openly told his audience to defy the regulatory processes of NAFDAC following the enforcement operation carried out under the Office of the National Security Adviser,” the statement said.
NAFDAC clarified that the operation targeted open drug markets in Idumota, Aba, and Onitsha, where officials uncovered banned, expired, and falsified narcotic drugs valued at over a trillion naira.
The agency noted that the affected warehouses and shops failed to meet essential Good Storage and Distribution Practices, making them unfit for pharmaceutical operations.
“All the warehouses, shops and parking stores in the three Open Drug Markets did not meet the minimum requirements of Good Storage and Distribution Practices,” the agency stated.
Adeyeye further explained that only a few remaining shops are yet to be properly identified, and those contain outrightly banned narcotics, according to NAFDAC’s database.
“The remaining few shops whose owners have refused to come forward for identification are the ones with outrightly banned narcotics according to our database. The cartel, along with their co-conspirators, are the ones creating incitements,” she said.
Reaffirming the agency’s commitment to public health, the DG emphasized the importance of maintaining safety and quality in drug distribution.
“NAFDAC will continue to safeguard the health of the nation. Our duty is to reduce the incidence of untimely deaths caused by fake or substandard medicines,” Adeyeye noted.
While NAFDAC indicated it would leave it to security agencies to determine whether the influencer had broken any laws, the agency made it clear that it would not condone actions intended to incite unrest or weaken its regulatory authority.
