NAFDAC ANNOUNCES PLAN TO REGULATE SNIPER OVER INCREASING USE FOR SUICIDES

The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) may direct a change in the package of ‘Sniper’, an agro-chemical that has increasingly become a choice killer for persons contemplating suicide.

This is in response to calls for a check on the proliferation and ease of access to Sniper in markets and streets across the nation.

The Director General of NAFDAC, Christiana Adeyeye, said Sniper containers “could now be made very difficult to open, or may be turned into a spray rather than the liquid contents it is known for.”

The suicide rate has increased in Nigeria with Sniper among the agents popularly used.

Notable among the reported incidents is that of a student of the Department of English and Literary Studies, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Chukwuemeka Akachi.

There was another case of a music pastor in a popular Pentecostal church who recently committed suicide after consuming the deadly substance. That was before Ayomide and Ajani Damilola of the University of Lagos were reported to have killed themselves using the insecticide following the accusations that they stole clothes in their hostel.

Another 32-year-old banker and mother of two, identified as Peace, of Ughelli, Delta State, committed suicide over her husband’s alleged infidelity. She also took Sniper.