Nigeria's NAFDAC raids Lagos herbal bitters factory using cough syrup's number

Nigeria's drug and food regulator, the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), has uncovered an illegal factory making herbal products in Agege, a district of Lagos, and arrested the company's manager. In a statement reported on 22 October 2026, the agency said its officers found three variants of a product called Asheitu Adams Bitters carrying registration number A7-1827L. When the number was checked on NAFDAC's product registration database, NAPAMS, it turned out to belong to a different, legally registered product: Greentol Cough Syrup. The agency said the operation followed a newspaper investigation published on 10 October 2026 about herbal bitters sold with registration numbers taken from other products. The company's managing director and chief executive was not present during the raid, NAFDAC said, while the manager was arrested for further questioning.

Herbal bitters are a popular category of traditional remedy in West Africa, sold cheaply and often in public places such as buses and parks. Because they are taken by mouth and in quantity, the question of who made them, where and under what conditions is a matter of public health, not only of trade rules. A product made in an unapproved building has not been inspected for hygiene, ingredients or contamination, and buyers have no way of knowing what is in the bottle.

The case also shows a specific trick that regulators around the world now watch for: borrowing a genuine registration number. A number printed on a label looks like official approval, and most buyers never check it. Here, the number was real, but it belonged to a cough syrup made by someone else. Reports on the case stress the lesson for consumers: a registration number is not proof that a product is genuine unless it matches the product name and the maker shown on the label.

For Peepals Sanskriti's readers, the story matters because traditional medicine is growing fast as a global business, and trust in it depends on the same basic checks everywhere. The World Health Organization and many national regulators have argued that traditional remedies earn their place through evidence, quality control and honest labelling. A fake approval number damages that trust for every honest maker of herbal products, in Nigeria or elsewhere. The same habit of checking a licence number against an official record applies to Ayurvedic, Unani, Siddha or homoeopathic products bought anywhere, especially online or from street sellers.

Short-term: The Agege site is out of action and the manager is being questioned. Buyers in Lagos who have bottles of the named bitters now know that the product carries a number that does not belong to it. NAFDAC asked the public to report suspected illegal manufacturing to its call centres and by email.

Long-term: The case adds to a run of enforcement actions against herbal products in West Africa this month, and it may push regulators to make registration databases easier for ordinary buyers to search. If the product owners are charged, the outcome will show how seriously the courts treat the misuse of another company's approval.

Who is affected: Consumers of herbal bitters in Lagos and elsewhere in Nigeria; the maker of Greentol Cough Syrup, whose registration number was used without right; legitimate herbal medicine producers, who compete with unregistered goods; and regulators who rely on registration numbers to trace products.

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