By Aderogba George
The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) on Thursday in Abuja sealed two Chinese supermarkets in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
The supermarkets, which are located at No. 40 Mike Akhigbe way, Jabi and No. 61, Ebitu Ukiwe Street, also in Jabi, were sealed for selling goods that were allegedly not approved in the country.
The agency also put on hold eight other shops at the Wuse market for selling aphrodisiac sex enhancement pills.
They were also found to be selling body enlargement creams and drugs for breast and buttock, including other toxic substances produced with dangerous chemicals.
Mr Embugushiki-Musa Godiya, Head of NAFDAC Investigation and Enforcement unit, Abuja, said during the enforcement operation that the exercise was in respond to consumer complaints.
He said the market value of the products seized during the raids is about N170 million.
He said that the sellers of the products had declared themselves doctors and pharmacists prescribing drugs for unsuspecting Nigerians.
“They also have some of these product 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 Chinese supermarkets, Godiya said that the agency also acted on intelligence it gathered from concerned citizens that there are some supermarkets belonging to some foreign nationals.
He said that these foreign nationals were said to have brought into Nigeria, certain items, most of which were food items, and were labelled in Chinese languages without any English translation.
Godiya said the action was in violation of NAFDAC labelling regulation adding that those supermarkets operated without approval from NAFDAC..
“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 found we placed the whole warehouse on hold; we have invited the owner for further investigation,” he said.
“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 be vigilant about what they buy and consume. (NAN)
