Esther Salifu
The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) has issued a warning to individuals involved in the illegal production of its regulated products saying ‘hard time” await them.
The Director, NAFDAC South-South Zone, Chukwuma Oligbu, stated this.
He said, “Hard hard times await those still involved in the illicit production of NAFDAC regulated products.”
Oligbu cautioned Individuals still engaged in adulterating registered products to abandon the illegal practice or, as he put it, “prepare to go to jail.”
The statement comes after the arrest of Anthony Chidi at Mile 3 Market in the Diobu area of Port Harcourt, the state capital.
In the statement, NAFDAC’s South-South Zone Public Relations Officer, Cyril Monye, revealed that the 52-year-old man was apprehended in the popular market while washing used bottles of different alcoholic beverage brands.
He said the man was caught “inside a dirty shop washing used bottles of various beverages he used in producing the unwholesome drinks and sells to unsuspecting members of the public.
“Items found in the shop include dirty empty bottles of different brands of local and foreign alcoholic beverages, gallons/jars of ethanol, washed empty bottles, cocks, packaging materials, various brands of already packaged drinks, funnel fitted with filters etc.
“Chidi said he started the illicit business about a year ago, having relocated from Aba in Abia State where he mastered the trade.
“And that he also gets the labels and packaging materials from Aba while he buys the used bottles within Port Harcourt.”
The statement added that the shop was cleared out, with all its contents transferred to the NAFDAC office, while the suspect would be handed over to the Enforcement and Investigation Directorate for further investigation and prosecution.
