NAFDAC nabs fake wine dealers in Abuja, confiscates N100m worth wine
The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration Control (NAFDAC) closed down four shops and confiscated N100 million counterfeit wine.
The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration Control (NAFDAC) has shut down four wine shops worth N100 million in Wuse market, Abuja, for selling fake and unregistered products.
NAFDAC's Deputy Director of Investigation and Enforcement, Shaba Mohammed, made the announcement on Friday, March 18, in Abuja.
Mohammed said he led a team of NAFDAC officials on enforcement to the market in continuation of a renewed global anti-counterfeiting fight against counterfeits, Tribune reports.
He warned that unwholesome food and beverages pose threat to human lives.
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He said: “This operation is being carried out in 60 countries of the world which include Africa, America, Asia and the Middle East.
“The operation is in continuation of a renewed global anti-counterfeiting fight against counterfeit, substandard, fake and unwholesome food and beverages in collaboration with Interpol and Europol."
He said that the raid was tagged “’Opson VI”.
Mohammed said that most of the items seized in the operation were mainly 100 percent ethanol mixed with other additives and contaminants.
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Some of the fake wine found in the market includes Chamdor, Toma, Valdepenas, J and W, and Charmat, among others.
He further explained that the contaminants cause damages ranging from affecting human brain, communication, inflammation of the liver and cancer.
He said: “We came across unregistered and counterfeit products in large quantity, the penalty is that we are going to initiate investigation and going to send the product to the lab even though we already know some of them are counterfeit from that we are going to file the persons for prosecution at the Federal High Court.
“In addition to that too on one of the locations too, on getting wind of our coming here, decided to lock up and run away so we had to break the shop open, enter inside and we saw more unregistered and counterfeit products here and I am actually standing in front of that shop. So we are going to evacuate these products and seal the shop.
“To start with, most of these products are contaminated and some of them also have some contents which actually should not be found inside drinks. So these have effect on the liver which causes liver circuses, cancer and some other unhealthy situation and also death in most cases."
He urged Nigerians to purchase only products that carry NAFDAC registration numbers.
He also advised Nigerians to insist on obtaining payment receipts for any purchase made and to report any suspicious activities or illegal warehouses found in their vicinity.
Meanwhile, a facebook user, Femi Mega, has claimed that he purchased a Coca-Cola drink and found ants in the drink after consuming.
According to him, he bought the drink in Lagos and didn’t inspect it until he had consumed the content. It was after he had downed it that he saw the ants at the base of the bottle.
Source: Legit.ng
