Court Orders Destruction Of Expired Goods

A Federal High Court sitting in Lagos has ordered that some expired and dangerous products imported into the country but impounded and currently stored in six containers at the Oshodi, Lagos warehouse of National Agency for Food and Drug Administration (NAFDAC), be forfeited to the Minister of Health for destruction.

The order was sequel to an application filed by NAFDAC’s solicitors, Adetunji Oyeyipo, urging the court to accede to the request of the agency.

In an affidavit sworn to by the agency’s Designated Food and Drugs Inspection officer, Mr. Oloko Ademola Waidi, the deponent averred that currently in the custody of NAFDAC are six container loads of expired and dangerous products considered harmful for human consumption.

The products were said to have been imported into Nigeria and seized at various times by officials of NAFDAC on suspicion that they were fake, substandard or adulterated and therefore unfit for human consumption.

Oloko averred further that the seized containers have been there over an extended period of not less than ten years and have remained there with nobody coming forward to claim ownership.

The seized container loads of expired and dangerous pharmaceutical products are said to constitute not only nuisance but serious environmental danger and in view of this, it is necessary to forfeit them to the Minister of Health so that he can give appropriate order for their disposal in the interest of public health.

The court then ordered that the products be forfeited.