TheCable

The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) has warned Nigerians against buying drugs from hawkers.

Speaking with NAN on Friday, Abubakar Jimoh, director of public affairs at the agency, lamented that many citizens refuse to patronise pharmacies.

Jimoh said most of the drugs sold by hawkers are poisonous and end up damaging vital organs of the body.

“Prevention is better than cure, where people have information about the safety of food and drugs, they will be able to avoid so many things, and to this extent, falling victims of all kinds of illnesses will be reduced,” he said.

“In this sensitisation campaign, we are reinforcing our earlier clarion call that people should not patronise drug hawkers; that drug hawking in Nigeria is an aberration, it is misnomer, it should not even happen at all.

“Drug is not like any other article of trade, it is not like just any other commodities people can be hawking up and down.

“If originally drug efficacy were safe, but by the time you start to expose it to all weather, it becomes mere poison.

“People shying away from pharmacists or chemist shops all in the aim of saving money, poverty or out-of-pocket expenses are literally killing themselves.

“You can cause kidney failure for yourself or liver damage or damage to important organs of the body. With adequate information, this can be prevented; this is what we are trying to do.”