The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) on Thursday sealed two Chinese-owned supermarkets in Abuja for allegedly selling unapproved products.
The supermarkets, located at No. 40 Mike Akhigbe Way and No. 61 Ebitu Ukiwe Street, both in Jabi, were shut down after agency operatives discovered products without NAFDAC approval on their shelves.
In a related operation, eight shops at the Wuse Market were also put on hold for selling sex-enhancement pills, body enlargement creams, and other toxic substances allegedly produced with harmful chemicals.
Mr. Embugushiki-Musa Godiya, Head of NAFDAC’s Investigation and Enforcement Unit in Abuja, said the raids followed consumer complaints.
“The market value of the products seized during the raids is about N170 million,” he disclosed.
According to him, some of the traders went as far as posing as doctors and pharmacists, prescribing drugs to unsuspecting Nigerians.
“They also have some of these products they popularly call kayanmata oil. These people formed a market in banking premises.
“The agency got the complaint and we cannot be here and allow such a thing to happen. We responded to that consumer complaint; we visited the place and we raided quite a number of shops carrying all manner of unapproved products by NAFDAC,” he said.
On the closure of the Chinese supermarkets, Godiya explained that the action was based on intelligence from concerned citizens.
He revealed that the outlets were found to be selling food items labelled only in Chinese, in violation of NAFDAC’s labelling regulation, and without approval from the agency.
“We have seized all the offending items we found in the supermarkets. In one of the places that we could not evacuate all the items, we placed the whole warehouse on hold; we have invited the owner for further investigation.
“We cannot guarantee the safety and the quality of these products. NAFDAC has not evaluated, assessed or analysed them,” he said.
Godiya urged Nigerians to remain vigilant about what they buy and consume to avoid endangering their health.
