In the midst of the Ebola outbreak,
several individuals have claimed to have the panacea for the disease.
Kolanut, salt, Ewedu, and other food items have been rumoured to cure
Ebola.
The National Agency for Food and Drug
Administration and Control (NAFDAC) has vowed to crack down on people
who make such erroneous claims, beginning with the professor who claimed
Ewedu can cure Ebola.
Director General of NAFDAC, Paul Orhii made the announcement yesterday, Vanguard reports.
Orhii reportedly stated that NAFDAC would arrest and prosecute a
Nigerian Professor of Ophthalmology at the Lagos University Teaching
Hospital, (LUTH) who made the false claims about Ewedu.
“One consequence of
these unsupported and possibly fraudulent claims is that people may be
misled into a false sense of invincibility on account of eating Ewedu or
bitter kola and drop their guards. This is a national embarrassment and
the Agency will not take such uncorroborated claims by supposedly
learned people lightly… NAFDAC will immediately arrest and prosecute any
Nigerian making such unverified claims as that could mislead the
public,” he said.
In its efforts to crack down on
individuals exploiting the Ebola situation, NAFDAC has also arrested
three Nigerian business men who imported fake Ebola kits and expired
hand sanitizers into the country.
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