…raises alarm over increasing presence of unregistered pharmaceutical products in Nigeria markets
The Comptroller General of the Nigeria Customs Service, Adewale Adeniyi, has raised the alarm over the increasing presence of unregistered pharmaceutical products in different markets across the country, insisting that the dangers associated to it’s consumption cannot be overlooked.
The alarm followed the seizures of various pharmaceuticals products and other items valued at N921 billion, intercepted by the Apapa Command of the Nigeria Customs between January and April 2025.
The seizures comprised five units of 40-foot containers, two units of 20-foot containers and four additional seizures of loosely concealed contraband items.
Showcasing the seizures at the Lagos Ports Complex on Wednesday,, Adeniyi stated that, the Service has intensified surveillance across unauthorized points of entries, specifically seaports, airports and approved land borders in pursuant to the National Strategic Economic Development Plan, and the executive order on port operations.
The CGC disclosed that strategies adopted is in direct response to the adaptive methodologies being deployed by transnational criminal networks seeking to compromise the Customs border security architecture and circumvent established import protocols.
He stated that of particular concern to the service is the alarming prevalence of unregistered pharmaceutical products entering the country’s supply chain, which he said are imported without requisite regulatory approvals and quality assurance certifications.
He said all the items seized constitutes a clear present danger to public health with potentials to cause significant morbidity and mortality if permitted to infiltrate the nation’s domestic markets.
According to him, Customs, in collaboration with other agencies of government, in exercise of it’s mandates, have therefore escalated it’s risk assessment protocols at all points of entry.
“I am going to be specifically talking about what has happened in this command, which between January and April 2025 has executed a series of targeted interdictions resulting in the seizure of prohibited and restricted imports.
“These operations yielded a total of 11 seizures comprising five units of 40-foot containers, two units of 20-foot containers and four additional seizures of loosely concealed contraband items. We are going to be seeing them. The duty paid values of all this amounts to 921 billion naira.
“All these items fall into three different categories. The first category is that of unregistered pharmaceutical products lacking mandatory NAVDAC registration numbers and certification, which is a direct confirmation of Section 28 of NAVDAC Act, Cap N-1, laws of the Federation, and this constitutes 63.7% of the total seizures that we have today, more than half of them. In the second category are expired food items with compromised safety profiles that pose imminent danger to public health if introduced into the consumer market in violation of the food products registrations and regulations and pre-shipment inspections of exports act.
“The third category is that of controlled equipment including drone technology and telecommunication devices imported without the requisite end user certificates from the Office of the National Security Advisor. And if you want to break down this further, the first 40-footer container CAAU6514500 has 89 cartons of unregistered pharmaceutical products. The second container 40-footer TCNU6880130 has 242 cartons of unregistered pharmaceutical products.
“The third 40-footer container MRSU3041714 has 1,001 cartons and packages of hydra-sildanafil citrate tablets. These are also lacking requisite NAVDAC registrations. The third 40-footer container has 1,400 packages of original so-called original chest and lungs beta plus big booty tablets also unregistered.
“Number five is 40-footer container which has 805 packages of unregistered products. This one was falsely declared as cosmetic powder. Then we also have a 20-footer container GCNU1367992 which has expired margarine products.
“We also have a container 20-footer GCNU1372704 which has expired margarine products. 60 units of warrior drones, some of which we see down there, we are going to look at them. These drones were evacuated from container number MSKU9329923.
“It’s a 40-footer container and none of those drones have end-user certificates. They are estimated to be valued 15.9 million naira. We also have 53 units of different helicopter drones.
“These drones were evacuated from CFAX3 for lack of end-user certificates and the duty paid value is 2.1 million naira. We have 10 pieces of professional FM transceiver transreceiver walkie-talkie. These are communication devices evacuated from ENL for lack of end-user certificates.
“We also have 20-footer container SUDU1408819 containing 500 packages of active medicine tablets without NAFTA registration. We went on to analyze all these seizures and we have about five different patterns that we have seen. The first pattern is that the proliferation of sexual enhancement drugs.
“Five of the level containers that we have today have various forms of sildanavir, citrix and related sexual enhancement medications. This is a disturbing trend in the importation of unregulated sexual performance drugs that pose serious health risks including potential cardiovascular complications and harmful drug interactions when used without proper medical supervision. The second pattern is the strategic misdirection misdeclaration tactics.
“We have also observed a sophisticated pattern of wrong declaration where importers deliberately classify pharmaceuticals as general merchandise or cosmetics. Two of the containers that I talked about earlier had this pharmaceutical but they used to conceal them with skin creams to hide them away from customers. The third is the diversification of contraband portfolio.
“Our seizures today revealed that importers are diversifying their contraband portfolios combining pharmaceuticals, food items and control technology in systematic shipments. This suggests the emergence of organized networks with sophisticated capabilities rather than isolated smuggling attempts that we used to have. We also have the pattern of strategic country of origin selection.
“Our analysis reveals a pattern in the selection of countries of origin with many consignments originating from jurisdictions with less stranger pharmaceutical export controls. This indicates deliberate exploitations of regulatory gaps in the international supply chain. We have also registered the escalation of non-pharmaceutical security threats and a pattern of financial scale” he stated.
