The National Agency for Food and
Drug Agency has arrested a professor for selling unregistered herbal products.
The Professor, who is
identified as Dayo Oyekole claimed to have his doctorate degree from University
of Ibadan.
The professor paraded himself
as an epidemologist and chief consultant Mosebolatan Holistic Lifecare
International.
A pamphlet advertising some
of the unregistered products of the company showed that it has offices at 11,
Ire-Akari Estate Road, Isolo, Lagos with Head office at Mosebolatan Plazan,
Ogbere-Tioya, Off Olorunsogo Express Bridge, Ibadan, Oyo State and Lagos.
Though the pamphlets and
advertisement on a national newspaper (not Punch) showed about 14 herbal
products of the company as been authorised, NAFDAC said it has only four of the
products listed in 2005 and 2007.
The Professor in the pamphlet
claimed that NAFDAC has approved natural herbal medicines for him to cure exam
failures, marital problems, bad dreams among others.
But NAFDAC Director General,
Paul Orhi in a press conference on Tuesday denied it, lamenting that
unauthorised products have dominated the markets.
He said, "Recently, the
Agency discovered an advertisement in the a national newspaper (not Punch)
edition of 15th June, 2014 where Prof. Dayo Oyekole of Mosebolatan Holistic
Lifecare Centre placed and unauthorised advertisement of range of herbal products
with spurious claims of total cure and deliverance of various ailments. Upon
investigation, a few of the products (four out – of- 14) were listed by NAFDAC
between 2005 to 2007. Since then, the listing of the products have not
been renewed as required by law. Ten out of these products have no
history of listing with NAFDAC but are openly displayed for sale and dispensing
in his clinic.
"The Agency in recent
times has observed the proliferation of unauthorised advertisement of herbal
products in both the print and electronic media. Most of these adverts
are misleading and carry false claims of treatment and cure of various ailments
including; treatment of HIV/AIDs, hepatitis, kidney deceases drug addiction,
mental sickness, marital problems, bad dreams, examination failure, asthmas,
cancer, prostate enlargement among others. While some of these adverts
carry NAFDAC number on the products advertised, investigations have shown that
most of these products have not been submitted to NAFDAC for listing."
He explained that giving
registration to herbal drugs does not guarantee efficacy of such products, but
showed that it was safe for consumption.
He said, "The Agency’s
policy for the listing of herbal products does not include the evaluation of
the products, but the products are listed based on the history of safe use of
the product and also analysed to ensure it is not toxic for human use.
"It is necessary to
emphasise that therapeutic evaluation of the products is made by NAFDAC, hence
the requirement for all listed herbal products to carry a disclaimer that 'This
claims has not been evaluated by NAFDAC'."
While expressing worry over the
influx of unauthorised drugs, Orhi vowed that offenders would be prosecuted.
He said, "The issue of
unauthorised advertisement and false claims by herbal medicine practitioners
has been a source of worry and concern to the Agency. Desperately ill
people and unsuspecting patients have been lured to patronise them believing
that they have NAFDAC approval.
"The Agency will
henceforth treat such violations seriously. We want to seize this
opportunity to appeal to the media houses in both print and electronic not to
accept advertisement for NAFDAC regulated products that do not have approval
for the Agency."
Attempt to speak to the
professor failed as he fled the press conference venue before its completion.
Yes!!! keep good job going, to prove that not all the legal professor knows their right to process........
ReplyDelete