Saturday, July 26, 2025 -The National Agency For Food and Drug Administration and Control, NAFDAC, says it has has finally arrested one Lazarus Onwukwe, a suspected major dealer on expired drugs.
According to the agency, the arrest is coming five months
after a joint team comprising NAFDAC, Army, police and the Department of State
Services, DSS)l, stormed his house at Umuocheala, a suburb in Aba.
During the February 11 operation, NAFDAC said it discovered
a mini drug factory within the buildings, where expired products were being
repackaged, revalidated and rebranded and pushed back into the markets for
public consumption.
The agency described the mini factory as the largest in the
entire South-East.
Speaking to journalists on Thursday, 24th July, 2025, about
the eventual arrest of the suspect, the Deputy Director of NAFDAC in charge of
Investigation and Enforcement in South-East and South-South, Omoyeni Babatunji
said Onwukwe, who has been at large, was arrested in his residence at
Umuocheala, Osisioma Ngwa LGA of Abia State.
Babatunji said the suspect was apprehended on Thursday while
trying to leave his house in his Sienna vehicle loaded drugs, after initially
sneaking- in.
He disclosed that the drugs recovered from the suspect would
be taken to the laboratory for tests and would also be provided in court.
The NAFDAC director said the building which was sealed by
his agency in February was surprisingly rented to some new tenants, but
confirmed that no drugs were found again inside the building on Thursday.
However, Lazarus Onwukwe, who confirmed to journalists that
he owns the buildings, said he used them as warehouses for the drugs he deals
on, which he insisted were genuine foreign drugs and not expired drugs, as
alleged by NAFDAC.
Onwukwe equally denied knowing that his buildings were
sealed after the 11th February raid by NAFDAC, hence the decision by his wife
to rent the spaces to tenants.
He said he was sick for over three months and did not evade
NAFDAC arrest.
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