The Director-General of the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), Professor Mojisola Adeyeye, has called for the death penalty or life imprisonment for those who produce and distribute fake regulated products, describing the offenders as “merchants of death”.
Adeyeye made the demand while addressing concerns over the circulation of suspected counterfeit and substandard food and other regulated items. She said the NAFDAC Act and the Counterfeit and Fake Drugs Act are under review and that the revised laws should impose the severe sanctions.
“The penalties should include death penalty or life imprisonment to people who produce and sell fake regulated products,” she stated. Stronger punishment is needed, she argued, because such products can kill and undermine the health system.
Between May and July 2026, NAFDAC’s Post-Marketing Surveillance Directorate conducted nationwide operations across the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory. Officials visited 5,738 facilities and removed 7,210 product brands from circulation. Food and water products accounted for the largest share at 3,633, followed by drugs and herbals at 2,459. The rest covered medical devices, vaccines and biologics, cosmetics, healthcare products and chemicals.
Approximately 80 per cent of the agency’s post-marketing surveillance work targets fake, falsified, substandard, adulterated or unregistered products. Adeyeye said the latest figures represent only part of broader enforcement efforts.
The agency has arrested people allegedly involved in counterfeiting CWay water as well as Oral-B and Colgate toothpastes. Investigators found that operators collected empty 19-litre CWay bottles, refilled them with water from unapproved sources and sold the products to hotels and supermarkets. The operators were caught and heavily sanctioned. NAFDAC also investigated complaints about the toothpaste brands, made arrests and published a public notice on its website about the counterfeit Colgate products. The manufacturer later contacted the agency and was informed of the arrests.
Adeyeye disclosed that NAFDAC has secured 64 convictions against counterfeiters nationwide. Sentences range from one to seven years’ imprisonment without the option of a fine. Examples include five years for faking a drug or medicines, seven years for fake antibiotics, and 12 months for fake ointments and condoms. A woman involved in pharmaceutical counterfeiting received a seven-year term.
Earlier operations included simultaneous raids in Idumota (Lagos), Aba (Abia) and Onitsha Bridgehead (Anambra) between February and March 2025 that yielded more than 137 forty-foot truckloads of counterfeit and substandard products valued at over N1.5 trillion, all of which were destroyed. In February 2026 the agency destroyed more than N15 billion worth of fake, expired, counterfeit and banned medicines in Ibadan, including Analgin, co-codamol, codeine syrups, tramadol, oxytocin and expired vaccines. In March 2026 it destroyed products worth N1.8 billion in Kuje, Abuja.
At the Lagos Trade Fair Market in February 2026 officials seized more than 10 million doses of counterfeit malaria medicines and cosmetics valued at about N3 billion and arrested four people. In Nasarawa State in June 2026 a factory packaging counterfeit rice was uncovered and more than 1,600 bags valued at about N5 million were confiscated.
Adeyeye rejected calls for her resignation, saying she inherited an agency at a low maturity level with heavy debts, non-functional equipment and limited capacity when she took office in 2017. She said NAFDAC cleared most of its outstanding obligations, reached maturity level three in 2022, the first African regulatory agency to do so and gained membership of international regulatory forums. She described her return from a long academic career in the United States as service-driven and insisted the agency continues to confront sophisticated counterfeiting networks.
She urged the public to report suspected counterfeit or unsafe products through official NAFDAC channels, including a call centre established about eight months ago, rather than relying on social media claims. Achieving a market free of fake and substandard regulated products, she said, remains a shared responsibility of the agency, other authorities, stakeholders and the public.
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