Officials of National Agency for Food, Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), Abia State Office, said they have arrested one Samuel Chukwu for allegedly faking a food seasoning product owned by another importer. The Abia State Coordinator of NAFDAC, Olisa Okeke made this known on Monday during an interview with News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Aba.
He explained that Mr. Chukwu claimed in his preliminary statement that he was not the importer but only an agent to an importer in Onitsha, Anambra, who brought in the fake products. He said that the original product was imported from South Africa by a Nigerian, who had been the sole distributor until the fakers went to China to produce the adulterated version of the product.
He said that the importer of the spice registered it with NAFDAC and had been renewing the registration with a record of good business until the fakers went to reproduce it in China. According to him;
“After surveillance, we were able to isolate the warehouse and with the support of the Nigerian army, the warehouse was stormed and we arrested Samuel Akin Chukwu and confiscated about 16 cartoons of the product.
“We were also able to retrieve some cartons from two persons who had bought the fake products and were leaving the shop on our arrival. We confiscated a total of 26 cartons of the fake product from Chukwu and his customers."
Mr. Okeke described the Eziukwu Market in Aba as the centre for high volume of trade in food items, adding that some dubious persons used the opportunity to manufacture fake food products.
“Eziukwu is a market that NAFDAC Abia office has its eyes on because of the activities of nefarious individuals in from time to time. NAFDAC would continue to raid the market until producers of fake products were thrown out of business to eradicate the menace of poisoning of citizens for the sake of monetary gains."
He thanked the residents who gave NAFDAC the tip-off and urged them to always inform the agency of suspicious activities around them.
NAN reports that the product is named “Benny Powdered Chicken Stock” with the image of the head of a cockerel in front of the pack.
