Paul Orhii, DG NAFDAC
The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) has introduced new ways of waging war against the proliferation of food and drug substances in Nigeria using modern technologies.
NAFDAC DG Dr. Paul Orhii mentioned some of the strategies recently noted that, the result of these innovations has been a massive reduction in the number of such dangerous health- related products coming into the country while local manufacturers are facing the worst fights against adulteration.
He added that the on-going revolution has been found to be more effective probably because it predicates on strengthening the institution itself rather than personalisation of the campaign as was the case in the past.
According to him, one of such novel idea is the use of TRUSCAN, a handheld device using Roman Spectroscopy to detect counterfeit products. With this technology, NAFDAC officials can quickly scan imported products at the Ports and release them on time without compromising their quality.
In his view, Nigeria is now the first country in the world to use it to detect quality of medicines. Following its success in Nigeria, the Food and Drug Administration agencies in the United States, Germany, Sweden, Canada and many others have also started using it.
Again due to the successes recorded with the TRUSCAN experiment, another cutting-edge device called the Black Eye which was manufactured in Israel has been introduced by NAFDAC. The Black Eye compares a tablet that you are trying to check and tell you whether it is genuine or fake and if you ask from the machine, it will break the product down into its component and tell you what it contains.
Meanwhile, Orhii has raised alarm over the activities of internet fraudsters who have established a facebook account in his name with the aim of duping unsuspecting Nigerians.
The fraudsters have put up a fake face-book account in the name of Dr. Paul Orhii requesting prospective contractors to pay the sum of N250, 000.00 (two hundred and fifty thousand naira) in order to get jobs from NAFDAC.
Orhii therefore warns Nigerians not to fall victims to these conmen as he never owned a face-book account.
He said in spite of the advantages of the social media, he was discouraged from opening a face-book account all along because of this type of fraudulent activities by internet scammers.
The Director General said he was prompted to issue this alert because of some gullible Nigerians who will be deceived by the fraudsters and implored the security agencies to help in tracking down the faceless internet fraudsters.