The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) on Tuesday, arrested 10 suspects over fake beverages in Cemetery Market, Aba and called for the closure of the market.
This was following the raid of the market by the South-East Zone of NAFDAC, which began Monday.
The Director, South-East Zone of NAFDAC, Martins Iluyomade disclosed this to newsmen after the raid, disclosing that the suspects in Cemetery Market occupy over 240 shops meant for traders which they turned into production centres for large-scale adulteration of beverages and drugs.
“What’s happening here at Cemetery Market, Aba is worse than Boko Haram. We saw how too many shops were converted into manufacturing centres for all manner of wines, expensive drinks, and revalidation of the expiry date of products.
“We have the cooperation of the state government and so far we have discovered 240 shops used for this illegal manufacturing of fake consumables and about 10 persons have been arrested and the arrests are still ongoing,” he said and called for the temporary shutdown of Cemetery Market, Aba, for proper sanitisation following the huge discovery of large scale production of fake products in the market.
According to him, “the catch was following the information the agency received about the illegal activities involving adulteration of known beverage brands in the market by a large number of persons in the market, stating that after doing some background checks, the agency discovered that horrendous things were happening there, and decided to carry out the operation without involving its Abia office.
“The fake products we moved out from here, four trailers cannot carry them. It shows the extent we have gone so bad as a country and the extent of dangers these people are creating. No wonder we have all manners of health issues and the funny thing is that we use our money to buy this evil. Our DirectorbGeneral is not leaving any stone unturned in getting rid of fake products in our market.
“I will suggest that this market be shut down for now until we sanitize this market for a while. We have written to appropriate authorities to that effect and we think it is the right thing to do because when people are around, everywhere is rowdy.”
Reacting, the Aba Unit of the Civil Liberties Organisation (CLO) described the situation as terrorism with the perpetrators being the terrorists who should be properly dealt with by the agency.
The Chairman of the CLO in Aba, Dr Charles Chinekezi, charged officials of NAFDAC and other law enforcement agencies to be aware of fake, substandard and expired products and to be more serious in dealing with perpetrators of such acts, noting that the attitude of the agency if changed, will go a long way in determining if such activities will continue or stop.
He regretted that similar raids and arrests had taken place in the past before this one, but no one of the perpetrators were jailed but they returned back to business afterward to continue with their evil businesses within some time.
Also reacting, the Coalition of South-East Youth Leaders, COSEYL has frowned at the development, describing it as “man’s inhumanity to man”, advising that the matter must not be treated with kid gloves.
Mr Goodluck Ibem, Leader of COSEYL who spoke to newsmen called on the National Assembly to amend the constitution with capital punishment attached to producing adulterated products and its sale and similarly, called on the Abia State Governor, Alex Otti to cooperate with NAFDAC in the state to ensure that the Cemetery market is sanitised, and bad eggs are sent out, while genuine business people are encouraged to do their lawful businesses.
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