Nwoye condemns closure, extortion of Onitsha drug market traders

The Senator representing Anambra North Senatorial District, Tony Nwoye, has decried the continued closure and reported extortion of traders at Ogbo Ogwu Market, Onitsha, following the contentious sealing of over 5,000 shops by the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC). NAFDAC closed the shops last February over allegations that they harbour fake and adulterated drugs.

In a statement, Nwoye said the situation amounted to a “clear case of regulatory overreach”, demanding urgent intervention by the federal and Anambra State governments to address what he described as “gross injustice”.

The closure of the market, which began in February 2025 after a NAFDAC raid on the popular drug market, has deprived thousands of shop owners’ access to their legitimate businesses.

While the agency initially stated that some traders were dealing in counterfeit medicines, Nwoye noted that the punitive measures extended far beyond the pharmaceutical sector.

He recalled visiting the market shortly after the raid, alongside a former Anambra State Governor and 2023 Labour Party (LP) Presidential candidate, Peter Obi, and other federal and state lawmakers. He had, during the visit, met with the affected traders to assess the impact of the closure on the economic life of the area.

He also criticised NAFDAC’s imposition of a blanket penalty of N500,000 per shop, later raised to N700,000 as a condition for reopening the market, describing the demand as “exploitative” and “without legal justification.”

The Senator queried why no other market in Nigeria had faced such mass penalisation, demanding the immediate refund of monies already collected from innocent traders. He also appealed to Anambra State Governor, Prof. Chukwuma Soludo, to intervene.

In a related development, NAFDAC has warned a social media commentator, popularly known as VeryDarkMan (VDM), over what it described as an inciting statement encouraging defiance of federal regulatory protocols.

The agency said this in a statement signed by its Director-General, Prof. Mojisola Adeyeye, yesterday. According to her, the influencer’s viral video misrepresented NAFDAC’s operations in Onitsha Bridge Head Market and may have breached the 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 read.

NAFDAC explained that its recent enforcement at open drug markets in Idumota, Aba, and Onitsha uncovered banned, expired, and falsified narcotic drugs worth over N1 trillion.