By Victor Enengedi
Former Director General of the National Agency for Food and Drugs Administration and Control (NAFDAC), Dora Nkem Akunyili reveals that her life was constantly in danger when she occupied the office.
Akunyili disclosed in an interview with The Sun how she, her family and her staff severally came under attack by some unidentified elements in her fight against the proliferation of fake drugs in Nigeria.
She claimed she got series of threat messages. ‘They would write letters, make phone calls, call my husband and tell him that ‘if you don’t caution your wife, she may not come out of this job alive.
‘They came to my house one night, beat my cook almost to pulp, repeatedly asking him: where is she? They ransacked everywhere. If I had slept in that house that night, only God knows what would have happened’, she stated.
She said about a particular time when the undisclosed elements took a different strategy, ‘On another occasion, they put a tortoise in my office. I didn’t touch it. It was my assistant that sprinkled holy water on it and removed it.’
Akunyili admitted that it was a very challenging 7 years as her husband and family were constantly concerned for her safety, while also persuading her to resign.
59-year old Akunyili finally retired from NAFDAC in 2008 taking a job in the administration of late President, Umaru Musa Yar’dua as the Minister of Information and Communication. In 2011, she contested for a seat in the Senate, but lost to the former Governor of Anambra State, Chris Ngige.
