DIRECTOR General of the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), Dr Paul Orhi, at the weekend allegedly escaped the assassins bullets by the whiskers.

Deputy Director, Information and Public Relations of the agency, Abubakar Jimoh, told our correspondent in Abuja Monday that Orhi had travelled to Makurdi for official duties last Friday and later went to his village where he donated an ambulance to the local health centre.

Half way into the ceremony he got information that one of his elder brothers had died and had to attend his funeral Tuesday.

Jimoh said Orhi was on his way to Abuja in preparation to attend a workshop organised by the Nigerian Chinese Drug forum billed for Eko Hotels in Lagos today.

But on getting to Akwanga, Orhi’s travelling party noticed a new Mercedes Benz C class trailing their convoy and trying to overtake them.

He said the drivers did all they could to prevent the Mercedes until they got to Garaku when the car managed to overtake the backup vehicles and leveled up with the four-wheel inside which Orhi was seated.

He said it was then they noticed that four men were inside the Mercedes car.

Jimoh added that the man sitting by the side of the car (Mercedes)where Orhi was, wound down the glass and brought out a riffle and attemped to shoot at Orhi.

He said the saving grace was that at this time the security detail in all the cars in the convoy had been alerted and coincidentally a lorry was coming from the opposite direction.

He said the riot policemen in the backup Hilux pickup van smashed the Mercedes car and distracted the attention of the man who wanted to pull the trigger.

He said following this action, the car and its four occupants on noticing the impact and trying to avoid oncoming lorry maneuver quickly escaped into a nearby compound.

He said the riot policemen in the convoy quickly surrounded the compound in readiness to open fire on the assailants but their leader had to stop them to prevent innocent civilians in the environs from being harmed.

At this juncture, he said the Mercedes Benz car hurried out of the compound and headed towards Makurdi.

Jimoh said Orhi was still in shock following the incident. Although he said it was too early to determine the motive of the assailants but added it would not be unconnected with his job of ridding the nation of fake drugs.

"You know a similar attempt was made on the life of Prof Dora Akunyili when he was the DG of the agency. Recently one of our operatives was assassinated in Port Harcourt. When one of our officials went to pay condolence visit, three of them were kidnapped. So, you can see the trend," Jimoh stated.

He said the DG’s security is already handling the matter with a view to lodging a formal compliant with the police today for further investigation.