In a baffling and deeply troubling turn of events, the Anambra State Police Command has chosen to raise alarm—not over the sale of fake and potentially deadly medications in the infamous Ogbo Ogwu drug market in Onitsha—but over the voice of an activist who dared to expose the rot. Martins Otse, popularly known as VeryDarkMan (VDM), a controversial but widely followed social commentator and rights crusader, recently visited the market, accompanied by a crowd of concerned traders and supporters. In a video that has since gone viral, he accused agencies responsible for drug regulation of gross negligence, extortion, and failure to publicly prosecute those involved in the criminal sale of counterfeit drugs.
But instead of responding to the substance of his allegations, the police issued a warning. According to them, VDM’s use of social media and his presence in Anambra constituted an act of incitement. They claimed that individuals not based in the state were using online platforms “under the guise of human rights activism to incite the public against government agencies and security institutions.”
This response is not just tone-deaf—it is dangerously out of touch with reality. The Ogbo Ogwu market is not a hidden enclave. It is a well-known open-air drug hub that has operated for decades with little to no meaningful regulation. Reports over the years have linked the market to the sale of expired, counterfeit, and unregistered pharmaceuticals. Yet, the regulatory bodies and law enforcement agencies have consistently looked the other way or offered mere lip service to public health concerns.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), Nigeria accounts for over 30 percent of the world’s counterfeit drug trade, making it a global hotspot for fake medications. The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) has on several occasions warned about the dangers of these products, with estimates showing that tens of thousands of Nigerians die annually due to complications arising from fake drugs. In 2020 alone, a NAFDAC-led raid in Onitsha reportedly uncovered over N200 million worth of fake and unregistered drugs, much of it sourced from Ogbo Ogwu. Yet, very little has changed on the ground.
What is truly galling is the glaring hypocrisy. The same security forces that have shown commendable speed in cracking down on peaceful protesters, online critics, or those deemed “politically provocative,” are now choosing to remain passive in the face of a public health disaster. Instead of commending VDM for drawing attention to a crisis that has silently claimed countless lives, they are threatening him with vague allegations of incitement.
The question now is: who is truly inciting the public? The man sounding the alarm—or the institutions that have allowed fake drugs to flourish, creating a silent epidemic of death and despair? The true threat to public peace is not the activist screaming into his phone camera, but the unchecked criminality that thrives under the cover of regulatory failure.
The Nigerian public deserves answers, not distractions. Where is NAFDAC in all of this? Why hasn’t the Pharmaceutical Council of Nigeria issued a statement? Where are the so-called watchdogs of public health, the civil society organizations, and the so-called human rights activists who are usually quick to call press conferences over every political skirmish? Their silence in this matter is not just disappointing—it is complicit.
We are at a critical juncture where the Nigerian people must choose between continued silence and urgent civic action. When a system fails to protect its citizens from counterfeit medicine—one of the most lethal threats facing the population—it is no longer simply negligent. It becomes part of the crime. And when the law enforcement arm of that system begins to threaten those raising the alarm, then we have crossed into dangerous territory, where truth is treated as treason and justice becomes an illusion.
The public must demand accountability, not just from the peddlers of fake drugs, but from every institution that has enabled their operation through silence, neglect, or active complicity. Nigeria cannot afford another day of performative policing while lives are being lost to fake pills and poisoned powders. If institutions cannot self-correct, then the people must correct them—through activism, through outrage, and through relentless pressure.
History will remember who stood for the truth—and who stood in its way.
