NAFDAC Raids Popular Aba Market Of Fake Products

Personnel of the National Agency for Food, Drugs Administration and Control (NAFDAC) have embarked on a 24hrs raid of popular Cemetery Market located in Aba South local government area of Abia State.

The raid, our correspondent gathered started on Monday December 11 as residents of the state were observing the usual Monday sit-at-home order of the Indigenous People of Biafra and continued on Tuesday December 12.

The volume of adulterated beverages and other consumables forced the NAFDAC operatives to temporarily shutdown the market on Tuesday.

The NAFDAC operatives, our correspondent reports were carrying out the exercise in conjunction with operatives of the Nigerian Army, Nigeria Police and Department of State Service (DSS) respectively.

Our correspondent reports that the market is notorious for faking of beverages and other consumables.

Sources within the NAFDAC disclosed that their personnel who had visited the same market to raid the place of counterfeit and adulterated products have severally been attacked, especially by those using parts of the market to brew fake known whiskies and other form of hot drinks.

According to the source, many of their staffers have sustained severe head and bodily injuries as a result of attack on their personnel by the traders who would do anything to frustrate attempts to sanitise the market.

Our correspondent gathered that the team led by the Director of NAFDAC in-charge of Southeast zone, Mr. Martins Iluyomade acted on a tip off and diligent surveillance.

According to information gathered, the operation was decided to be carried out on Monday when the traders and majority of residents of Aba would be observing the usual sit-at-home order of the IPOB.

This our correspondent gathered was to reduce possible casualty and possible resistance from the traders which has been their usual strategy to stall any planned raiding of the market.

The unannounced invasion of the market was said to have taken even some staff of the federal government agency in the state unawares to avoid any leakage or sabotage.

Our correspondent who was in the market on Tuesday, reports that apart from traders along Iyiegbu and Aforage Plaza, other parts of the markets were shutdown.

The chairman of the market, Chief A.E Udeigbo, at the time of our reporter’s visit was not on seat.

The unannounced invasion of the market left customers of the traders hopeless as many of them who came from different parts of the country wete left disappointed

While some of the customers chose to pay for accommodation till tomorrow (Wednesday) going by the cost of transportation to and fro their destination, others who could not afford to spend the night in Aba boarded buses to their bases, leaving their customers with the list of goods that would be waybilled to them later in the week or as soon as the market was reopened.

The state government at the time of filing the report was yet to make official statement, apparently because of the ongoing budget presentation by the governor at the state assembly.

But a source within the government told our correspondent that the government was reviewing the situation and would soon issue statement on the matter.

The state government by the closure of the market lost huge sums of revenue from the second largest markets in Aba with the shutdown.

Meanwhile, Mr. Martins Iluyomade, Director of NAFDAC South-East Zone while addressing journalists on Tuesday said that they got information that something is happening at the market, did their background checks and discovered that horrendous things are happening there.

The raid which started on Monday, continued on Tuesday, NAFDAC intensified efforts to get the safe from fake, expired and harmful products.

“What’s happening here 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 date for expired products.

“We have the cooperation of the state government and so far we’ve discovered 240 shops used for this illegal manufacturing of fake consumables. About ten persons have been arrested and the arrest is still ongoing.

“What we have moved out from here, four trailers cannot carry it. It shows the extent we’ve 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 DG 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’ve written to appropriate authorities to that effect and we think it’s the right thing to do because when people are around, everywhere is rowdy.”

The Coalition of South-East Youth Leaders (COSEYL) frowned at the development, describing it as man’s inhumanity to man, which it says should not be treated with kid gloves.

Comrade Goodluck Ibem, Leader of COSEYL called on the National Assembly to find a way to amend the constitution to ensure that nothing less than a capital punishment is inserted as a legal consequence for producing and marketing fake products.

He called on the Abia State Governor, Dr Alex Otti to cooperate with NAFDAC 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.

Aba Unit of the Civil Liberties Organization (CLO) described the situation as terrorism with the perpetrators as terrorists who should be properly dealt with by the agency

Chairman of CLO in Aba, Prof. Charles Chinekezi however, charged officials of NAFDAC and other law enforcement agencies in the areas of fake, substandard and expired products to be more serious in dealing with perpetrators of such acts.

He stressed that the attitude of the agency will go a long way in determining if such activities will continue or stop, stressing that similar raids and arrests have taken place before with the perpetrators returning to business within some time.