UNIS/NAR/749
8 May 2002

INTERNATIONAL NARCOTICS CONTROL BOARD ELECTS
DR. EMAFO OF NIGERIA AS NEW PRESIDENT

VIENNA, 8 May (UN Information Service) -- Dr. Philip O. Emafo, a pharmacist and international drug control expert from Nigeria has been elected President of the International Narcotics Control Board (INCB) at its 74th session in Vienna (6-17 May).

Dr. Emafo has been a member of the INCB since 2000 and served as Member of the Standing Committee on Estimates since 2000 and was Rapporteur of the Board in 2001. He is a distinguished pharmacist and has served on a World Health Organization (WHO) advisory panel on pharmaceuticals and on a WHO expert committee on drug dependence. He has been a member of various expert advisory groups including UN expert groups which reviewed the UN machinery for drug control on several occasions, most recently in 1997-98. He has also advised the Organization of African Unity on drug control issues.

Also elected were Mr. Jacques Franquet of France, First Vice-President; Dr. Alfredo Pemjean of Chile, Second Vice-President and Chairman of the Standing Committee on Estimates (SCE); and Ms. Maria Elena Medina Mora of Mexico, Rapporteur. The officers are elected by the Board to serve a one-year term, ending on the first day of the Board’s May 2003 session.

* *** *