The National Agency for the Administration and Control of Food and Drugs (NAFDAC) raided ten warehouses in Kano State’s Sabon Gari market, seizing unregistered food products and arresting 2 people.
Mr. Tamanuwa Andrew, Deputy Director, Investigation and Enforcement Directorate of NAFDAC, Kaduna office, said this on Wednesday to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Kaduna.
According to him, the raids at the Sabon Gari market and Unity road warehouses were consistent with their regulatory actions and duty to ensure a healthy nation.
500 cartons of milk creamer, 3,655 cartons of lolly pop sweets, 1,800 cartons of monosodium glutamate, 162 bags of star milk, and 300 cartons of chocolate were seized, according to him.
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In addition, 688 cartons of Afri Cafe and 219 bags of pre-plain green milk were confiscated, he said.
Tamanuwa stated that the Agency does not know how the items entered the country.
“Our investigations will reveal the source of the products and their country of manufacture because all of them are imported, not manufactured locally in Nigeria.
“We will send them to the laboratory to ascertain their quality and see if they are safe for consumption,” he said.
In addition, the Deputy Director stated that some food products may include cancer-causing chemicals.
He explained that they did not conduct raids on the free market, but rather on warehouses where NAFDAC-regulated products are held, in order to seize a big number.
“One of the strategies to reduce or minimize the menace of substandard, expired, and falsified products is by continuous mop up of the products from circulation, which we are not relenting on.
“This will send strong signals to individuals that wherever they store those products, we will get them, not that we will be seizing them in pieces.
“We want to know the kingpins who bring those products in large quantity,” he said.
The Deputy Director stated that the owners of the warehouses have been invited while investigations continue to their logical conclusion, at which point the law would take action against them and those who were arrested.
He reaffirmed NAFDAC’s commitment to establishing safe markets where consumers purchase consumables and other goods with quality assurance.
Mr. Kassim Ibrahim, the Kano State Coordinator of NAFDAC, who also participated in the raid, reported that some of the warehouses that were raided lacked adequate cleanliness.
In a phone chat, he stated that the warehouses were not following proper storage procedures.
Ibrahim stated that they would launch a campaign to educate owners of warehouses in the state that store NAFDAC-regulated products about good warehousing techniques.
