Mrs Roseline Ajayi, the State Coordinator for National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) in Kwara, said on Monday that the agency would descend on those parading fake NAFDAC codes. Ajayi stated this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Ilorin.

She said that NAFDAC would carry out periodic checks on imported and locally-manufactured products and urged manufacturers to make their products available for the exercise. "We know some people are using fake NAFDAC codes but they do not know that we have our codes for different products.

"Through the check, we will be able to fish out those with fake codes. "We have some imported products around that bear NAFDAC numbers and some local products too which we categorised as sub-standard.

"If the manufacturers know and importers are sure of what they are pushing into the market, they will subject it to NAFDAC scrutiny," she told NAN. The coordinator, however, said that the problem of sub-standard products was minimal in the state.

"I had the opportunity of interviewing some of our stakeholders and they often times accused us of being too stringent; that our requirements are too many compared to other states.

"What we do is that we take samples of some of their products for test without telling them. So I can boldly say most of these products are measured up to standard. "To a large extent, Kwara is in good standing when it comes to product standard," the NAFDAC chief said.

Ajayi said that NAFDAC, under her administration, would intensify effort to sensitise the public on the need to patronise only registered products. She said that NAFDAC was the only agency saddled with the responsibility of assessing external and oral products, while others dealt with utility and household equipment.

"We all work toward one purpose; we have the same aim and goal, there could be areas of overlap but certainly we are all working for the same purpose. "We scrutinise any product that can have any negative impact on health, whether external or oral,'' she told NAN.