A former National Publicity Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Olisa Metuh, has urged the National Assembly to amend related legal guidelines on counterfeit merchandise to prescribe stiffer penalties for these concerned within the manufacturing and distribution of fake medicine and different adulterated goods in Nigeria.
Mr Metuh, a member of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Director of Mobilisation and Organisation of the Renewed Hope Ambassadors (RHA), beneficial longer jail sentences and asset forfeiture for anybody convicted of manufacturing or distributing counterfeit merchandise.
He made the decision in an announcement on Friday whereas reacting to the conviction of Innocent Okoye by the Federal High Court in Abia State for producing and distributing fake Extra Virgin Olive Oil.
Mr Okoye was sentenced to 5 years’ imprisonment, with an choice of a N5 million positive.
Mr Metuh, a lawyer, described the sentence, significantly the choice of a positive, as too lenient for an offence that would endanger the well being of thousands and thousands of Nigerians. He warned that counterfeiting would persist if harder penalties weren’t launched to discourage offenders.
“A five-year jail time period or N5 million positive quantities to a mere slap on the wrist. Such punishment might make counterfeiting and product adulteration a manageable enterprise expense for unscrupulous producers and distributors.
“The law must respond with consequences that fit the crime. The absence of direct physical confrontation between offenders and their victims does not make product counterfeiting any less dangerous than conventional violent crimes,” he mentioned.
He urged the National Assembly to urgently overview current legal guidelines governing drug counterfeiting, pharmaceutical adulteration and the falsification of shopper merchandise, arguing that the penalties ought to replicate the potential hurt such offences might trigger to public well being.
Persistence of fake medicine and different counterfeit merchandise in Nigeria
Counterfeit and substandard merchandise stay a public-health concern in Nigeria regardless of repeated raids, seizures, arrests and prosecutions by the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC).
The downside extends past medicines to adulterated meals, drinks, cosmetics, medical gadgets and different regulated merchandise. Such merchandise might include dangerous elements, incorrect portions of lively pharmaceutical elements or substances that haven’t undergone the required security and high quality checks.
The penalties of utilizing substandard and falsified medicines, in accordance with NAFDAC, embrace therapy failure, extended hospitalisation, elevated hospital admissions, antimicrobial resistance and, in extreme circumstances, dying.
The persistence of the commerce is illustrated by the repeated discovery of unlawful manufacturing and distribution amenities, together with in main pharmaceutical markets equivalent to Onitsha, Aba and Lagos.
A BusinessDay investigation published in August discovered that NAFDAC’s enforcement information confirmed that merchandise price greater than N1.1 trillion had been seized or destroyed between 2023 and 2025, but the company continued to come across counterfeit and substandard merchandise in beforehand raided distribution centres.
Between January and August. NAFDAC’s Directorate of Investigation and Enforcement arrested 52 suspects, raided 213 areas, seized 821 merchandise and sealed 179 premises.
The NAFDAC’s Director-General, Mojisola Adeyeye, lately mentioned the company had secured 64 convictions for counterfeiting, with sentences starting from one to seven years’ imprisonment with out the choice of a positive.
Bills earlier than lawmakers
Two separate however associated legislative payments are earlier than the Senate, sponsored by Sadiq Umar (APC, Kwara North).
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They are: the Counterfeit Medical Products, Fake Drugs and Unwholesome Processed Foods (Prohibition and Control) Bill, 2026, and the Food, Drugs and Related Products (Registration, and many others.) (Repeal) Bill, 2026.
The modification to the counterfeit medical merchandise invoice seeks to repeal and exchange the prevailing Counterfeit and Fake Drugs and Unwholesome Processed Foods (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act, 2004, with a extra complete framework for addressing counterfeit medical merchandise, fake medicine and unsafe processed meals.
It prescribes a 15-year jail time period for offenders upon conviction, alongside asset forfeiture and compensation for victims. It additionally seeks to strengthen NAFDAC’s enforcement powers.
While the proposed Food, Drugs and Related Products Bill focuses straight on criminalising counterfeiting and prescribing punishments, it additionally modernises the regulatory framework governing meals, medicine and different merchandise beneath NAFDAC’s management.
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