By Chioma Umeha
National Agency for Food and Drugs Administration
and Control (NAFDAC) on Friday, raided and sealed shops in the popular Oke-Arin
Market, Balogun and Alaba Suru, Apapa both in Lagos State, where fake liquor
were being bottled and registered brands counterfeited.
The agency conducted the raid following a tip-off
about some wine and spirits distributors, who had local production sites where
the adulteration was going on.
Apart from fake liquor, counterfeited packaging
materials such as empty bottles, funnels, filtering clothes, corks of
registered brands among others, were discovered in the raid which involved
NAFDAC Enforcement officers and journalists who monitored the exercise.
A shop at No. 12 Issa Williams, Balogun market
with the business name, Ken-Zubby Emporium Ltd, which belongs to one Kennedy
Maduewesi, was among those sealed as large quantities of the fake liquor and
counterfeited packaging materials were discovered there.
A sales representative at the shop who simply
identified himself as Christopher however declined comments on the use of the
fake packaging products.
Christopher, who claimed to have been in the shop
for less than two years, told Independent, that his master, Mr. Maduewesi, who
was not present in the shop at that moment, was the one to provide answers on
what those materials are for.
“I am not the owner of the shop, I am only working
here as a sales representative, when the owner comes you ask him what they use
them for. I met everything here when I came to this shop. They have been here
for a very long time,” Christopher told Independent.
The agency also sealed a Fan Milk outfit, Alaba
Suru, along Apapa road, where some of their products did not have expected
labeling information such as: date markings, batch number, manufacturing date
and expiry date.
The outfit also came short of a healthy
environment as offensive odour was felt around the outfit.
Commenting on the raid operation, Mr. Uche Chidi
Uzoma, Assistant Director, Investigation and Enforcement Directorate, NAFDAC,
Lagos said that the operation was actually informed by a kind of international
operation that is going on in different parts of the world.
Uzoma said that the raid was part of a global
exercise occurring simultaneously in all nations of the world called Operation
Olson VI.
He said the operation was jointly conducted by
Europol, Interpol and other law enforcement agencies including the Customs,
Police, and the Military and was aimed at dislodging criminal network of food
and drink products counterfeiters.
“It is aim at dislodging organized criminal
network of counterfeiters, those that are into food and drinks products,” Uzoma
said.
On the fake products discovered by the team at
Oke-Arin Market, he said: “We have confirmed that some of the things discovered
at Oke-Arin Market belonging to one Ken-Zubby Emporium Ltd.
“The search operation was based on the tip off we
received regarding some of this distributors trying to have a local production
site, where adulteration are carried out. In the process, we stumbled on these
branded and registered fake wine and spirits; packaging materials, empty
bottles, funnels, filtering clothes, corks of some of as we are seeing being
displayed here.”
On the Fan Milk outlet he also maintained: “The
operation has to do with dislodging of criminal networking involving food
fraud, producers, importers, sellers of fake food and drink products.
“Based on that tip off, we equally visited that
particular premises and we discovered one or two items not having the expected
labeling information that it supposed to bear like date markings, no batch
number, no manufacturing date, and no expiry date.
“In such situation you cannot ascertain for the
quality, safety and efficacy of such product and unsuspecting consumers are
being deceived into taking such product. We actually saw that that environment
is unhealthy,” he said.
“We have decided to evacuate and seal the locations.
We will continue further investigations even though we already know some of
them are counterfeit; from that, we are going to file the cases for prosecution
at the court.”
Most of the products found during the raid are
contaminated and some of them have contents that shouldn’t be found inside
drinks. These have effects on the liver, which can cause liver cirrhosis,
cancer, some other unusual situations and also deaths in most cases.
