NAFDAC Discovers Counterfeit Beverage Facilities In Abia, Apprehends 10

By Abimbola Kintum
The officials of the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control have raided some factories in Abia State involved in the illicit production, distribution and sale of counterfeit wines and carbonated beverages to retailers.
The agency raided the well-known Cemetery market in the state and closed numerous illicit markets suspected to be vending adulterated beverages
The director of the agency’s south-east zone, Martins Iluyomade, disclosed that 10 individuals in control of more than 240 shops at the Cemetery market were apprehended in the operation.
While explaining that the markets would remain sealed pending the outcome of an investigation, Iluyomade added that the arrested suspects were caught selling products that were often produced using unsafe ingredients and unsanitary practices.
“Every session of the shops you see here is a factory and everyone is a manufacturer of a product,” the NAFDAC director told Channels Television.
He added, “There are two sets of illegality going on here. Some sets of people are manufacturing products of other people in large quantities. So much so that there is little or no difference between their products.
“And the one that is manufactured here, they are produced in a substandard manner.
“Like the raw materials we saw the other time, all they do is just get the rubber and a mixer. Some just see the regular sieve and put it into bottles for people to drink.
“My fear is that this is the yuletide period, people have bought drinks in the house, and they don’t even know the source of the drinks they have bought.
“There is also a high level of increase in liver failure, and kidney failure and some of them are major results of some of the poisonous things that people have taken.”