The Nation Newspaper

Tag: NAFDAC

  • Traders, hoodlums attack NAFDAC officials

    Traders, hoodlums attack NAFDAC officials

    Traders and touts in Lagos and Ogun states yesterday attacked officials of the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC).

    The hoodlums also attacked mobile policemen attached to the enforcement directorate of the agency.

    The enforcement teams were on nationwide raid for fake, unregistered, counterfeit and suspected contaminated vegetable oil in major markets and distribution channels in the states when the traders and touts swooped on them.

    The traders seized some of the products already evacuated by the teams and beat up one of the agency’s staff, Miss Evelyn Chiemeke.

    The officials narrowly escaped a mob attack at Ikorodu market where four shops and two traders arrested.

    After seizing 438 gallons of fake vegetable oil valued at N6, 576,000, some of the traders attacked the officials with weapons for a free- for- all at the instigation of a market leader who later admitted to have imported the unregistered vegetable oil from Benin Republic.

    At Sango market in Ogun State, members of the market union assaulted the officials after six shops were sealed.

    At Alabarago market in Ojo, the team forcefully opened a warehouse stock with fake products after the owners absconded on sighting the officials.

    A mobile policeman attached to the team was attacked and almost lost his gun to the mob in the process.

    Briefing reporters after the raids, NAFDAC’s Chief Regulatory Officer, Enforcement Operations, Joseph Folorunsho-Idowu, regretted the exercise was marred by pockets of violence.

    He explained that the exercise was a continuation of its nationwide regulatory exercise.

  • NAFDAC impounds ‘fake’ oils at Oyo markets

    NAFDAC impounds ‘fake’ oils at Oyo markets

    One thousand five hundred kegs of unregistered vegetable oils were seized on Monday by the National Agency for Food Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) when the agency raided Agbeni and Bodija markets in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital.

    It said the raid was a continuous exercise to sanitise markets.

    The agency’s Chief Regulatory Officer, Mr. Idowu Joseph, who led his team from Lagos, stormed the markets about 1:15pm.

    He said: “We are in these markets to mop up unregistered vegetable oils, particularly MOI oil.

    “They were smuggled and are sold in the markets. They have not been tested and certified for human consumption by NAFDAC or any approved laboratory.

    “We have intelligence gathering informants, intelligence units within the agency and citizens, who give us information on what is going on at the markets. The information gathered led to this operation.”

    Joseph said 1,200 kegs of vegetable oils (25 litres) were seized at Agbeni market and 300 kegs were confiscated at Bodija market.

    Said he: “At Agbeni market, five shops were shut. One of them contained about 750 kegs. Three people were arrested at Agbeni market. Although some traders were not nabbed, they were invited for interrogation.”

    The NAFDAC chief said the traders claimed ignorance of the unregistered items, adding: “We have enlightened the public and the traders to avoid products without NAFDAC numbers.”

  • NAFDAC certifies bread in Rivers bromate-free

    NAFDAC certifies bread in Rivers bromate-free

    The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) has certified bread in Rivers State potassium bromate free following an on-the-spot test on bread baked in over 180 registered bakeries in the state.

    NAFDAC’s Rivers State Coordinator, Mrs. Mercy Ndukwe, said that the state achieved 100 percent success in the annual bread-monitoring exercise due to effective regulation and enlightenment campaign embarked upon by the agency over the years on the harmful effect of using potassium bromate in bread-baking.

    In his key note address at the flag off ceremony of the annual bread-monitoring exercise in Port Harcourt, the Director General, Dr, Paul Orhii, reiterated the determination of NAFDAC to enforce the ban on the use of potassium bromate in bakeries.

    The NAFDAC boss who was represented by NAFDAC South-South Zonal Coordinator, Mr. Benson Kine, said that, “use of potassium bromate in flour milling and bread-baking was banned in Nigeria since 1993 and NAFDAC in her unflinching determination to enforce the ban has prescribed stiffer penalties, including prosecution of defaulters to serve as a deterrent. In addition, continuous collaboration, dialogue and consultation with the stakeholders, Association of Master Bakers, Flower Millers, etc, are strategies to enforce the ban.”

    He urged bakers to participate in the bread-monitoring exercise which will be conducted annually and designed to include on the spot testing of bread and if required the improver used for baking, training of bakers and issuance of certificate of attendance to participating bakers and list of approved bread improvers to be made available to bakers.

     “Bread consumption being widespread and unrivalled as a staple food cutting across cultural and religious barriers and is imperative that NAFDAC and master bakers ensure that the quality and safety of bread sold and distributed in Nigeria is produced under satisfactory GHP,” Orhii stated.

    “The variation in composition of flour necessitated the need for an improver and potassium bromate became attractive due to its low cost and ability to act as an efficient oxidising agent,” he stated. But its use was banned since 1992 and removed from bread improvers generally regarded as safe (GRAS) ingredients by the Food and Agricultural Organisation/World Health Organisation (FAO/WHO) Expert Committee on Food Additives worldwide.

    He said that toxicology study on potassium bromate has shown that it degrades vitamin A2, B1, B2, E and niacin which are the main vitamin available in bread, in humans it can cause cough and sore throat when inhaled.

    Other health hazards include; abdominal pain, diarrhea, nausea, vomiting, kidney failure, hearing loss, bronchial and ocular problems and its potential to cause cancer (carcinogenic), while chronic exposure may lead to kidney damage.

    The state coordinator urged the bakery owners to build on the successes recorded by striving to maintain NAFDAC standard by upgrading to modern facilities and to stop the criminal and clandestine use of potassium bromate.

    Chairman of Master Bakers Association of Nigeria (Rivers State Branch), Mr. Kolawole Adelegan, commended NAFDAC for the seminar, saying that every interaction with NAFDAC enriches their knowledge while pledging continuous compliance of its members on the ban of potassium bromate.

  • NAFDAC arraigns Beninoise for ‘importing’ fake insecticide

    NAFDAC arraigns Beninoise for ‘importing’ fake insecticide

    The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) yesterday arraigned a Beninoise at the Federal High Court in Lagos for allegedly importing counterfeit insecticide.

    The accused, Nimota Yusufu, 35, was charged with four counts of importation, selling and distribution of an unregistered product.

    The prosecutor, Mr Umar Shamaki, said Yusufu was caught by NAFDAC officials on August 18 at Ebute-Ero in Lagos.

    He alleged that the accused imported an unregistered brand of ‘Read A Dream Insecticide’ from Cotonou, Benin Republic, and sold it to the unsuspecting public.

    NAFDAC said the product was fake and dangerous to the public.

    The alleged offences contravene sections 3 and 6 (1) (a) of the Counterfeit and Fake Drug and Unwholesome Processed Foods (Miscellaneous Provision) Act Cap C34, Laws of Federation 2004.

    Yusufu, who said she could not understand English, pleaded not guilty to the charge after it was interpreted to her in Yoruba.

    Justice Mohammed Yunusa ordered that she be remanded at the Kirikiri prison until her bail application was heard.

    Her trial will begin on December 2.

  • NANS to EFCC: Be fair in NAFDAC D-G’s prob

    President, National Association of Nigeria Students (NANS), Tijani Usman Sheu, has said  the investigation of the Director-General of National Agency for Foods, Drugs Administration (NAFDAC), Mr. Paul Orhii, by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) should be devoid of bias or politics.

    At a news conference in Lagos, Sheu dissociated the union from a protest by some students, claiming to be NANS representatives, staged against the NAFDAC chief at the EFCC office in Ikoyi.

    The NANS President said the union is not against the probe of the NAFDAC helmsman or any other agency but cautioned that the exercise should not be politicised.

    He advised those he described as unscrupulous elements not to drag the union into the probe.

    Sheu said NANS did not contemplated or decide to protest against either the NAFDAC or its leadership, warning students not to allow themselves to be used by any individual who may have vested interest in the Orhii’s investigation.

    Sheu said NANS is committed to efforts  by the NAFDAC chief to rid the country of fake and counterfeit drugs, saying that such effort were already yielding results in most tertiary institutions.

    “We support and encourage the EFCC in its effort and anti-corruption activities. We only wish to state that such should be devoid of bias or undue politics in order not to destroy the international reputation Nigeria has enjoyed globally through the activities of NAFDAC in waging war against drug counterfeiting, drug abuse and unwholesome consumption of food, beverages and other dangerous alcoholic contents.

    “We strongly believe that any genuine effort to investigate corrupt practices, particularly, as the case may be in NAFDAC, such must be all inclusive and should not be seen as an exercise to witch hunt the director general alone,” he said.

     

  • NAFDAC arraigns businessman over fake Alomo Bitter

    NAFDAC arraigns businessman over fake Alomo Bitter

    A businessman, Magnus Onyenkwu Ezeago, has been arraigned before a Federal High Court in Lagos by the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) for producing false labelling, stocking and distributing fake Alomo Bitters a popular alcoholic beverage.

    Ezeago, who resides at No 27 Toyin Street, Oke Ibadan, Oyo State, is standing trial before a Federal High Court, Lagos on a six-count charge bordering on unlawful production and distribution of unwholesome processed food.

    The Prosecuting counsel, Bartholomew Simon, told the court that the accused unlawfully produced, packaged, falsely labelled, distributed and sold to the public Kasapreko Alomo Bitters, an unwholesome food product.

    Justice Mohammed Yunusa, in his ruling said he preferred such an application to be made formally.

    He ordered the remand of the accused to prison custody while adjourning the case to August 20, for hearing on bail application.

     

     

  • NAFDAC uncovers factory with expired condiments

    NAFDAC uncovers factory with expired condiments

    The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control  (NAFDAC) has uncovered an illegal factory within the Trade Fair Complex in Lagos, loaded with various expired food condiments worth millions of naira.

     It arrested a 24–year-old, Mr. Victor Ebuka Okeke, in connection with the expired products.

    The factory, which was originally a one- shop, was said to have been used to stock, re-validate and distribute expired products.   Some of the expired products discovered in the factory include expired Maggi Sauce with manufacturing dates: 15/08/2011 and expiry dates: 15/08/2014, Amoy Dark Soy Sauce, Costa Corned Beef and Exeter Corned beef, among others.

    For the Costa Corned Beef, whether expired or not, the 24-year -old suspect, changed their labels to Exeter Corned Beef, which, according to him, was to attract patronage because it was a fast moving brand in the market.

    Addressing reporters    shortly after the exercise, the leader of the NAFDAC team and Assistant Director, Enforcement Operations, Mr. Shaba Mohammed, said the agency had been on the trail of the alleged owner of the factory, following intelligence report.

    He said the suspect, who also claimed to be the managing director of the factory, was caught re-validating the expiry dates of Maggi Arome sauce and Amoy Soy sauce, smuggled into the country from Ghana, from 2014 to August 2016.

    According to him, the products expired in August 15, last year.

    “The suspect was also caught changing labels of Costa corned beef to Exeter corned beef,” he added

    Mohammed, who said the suspect had refused to provide information regarding the whereabouts of over 902 cartons of expired Maggi sauce, said the agency would charge him to court for counterfeiting.

    “We have arrested the suspect and evacuated the remaining products in the illegal factory. We are also charging him for counterfeiting. Some of the products were not registered by NAFDAC. The products were smuggled in from Ghana.  What we found cannot be consumed.  We saw two drums filled with ordinary water which he used to immerse the products and the labels will remove without any trace and are replaced with re-validated labels.”

    He added that most of the re-validated products had been pushed into the market.

     Mohammed said consuming such products could lead to terminal diseases, such as liver and kidney ailments, which are on the rise in the country.

    He said the sauces are sodium-based products that could cause hypertension, if consumed.

    The assistant director also said the suspect would be arraigned in court.

    “Every single thing that is here is dangerous to human health.”

    Okeke, who claimed to hail from Njikoka in Anambra State, said he was forced to re-validate the dates to recover the money he spent in importing the products.

    “The goods expired after I have sold over 100 cartons.  I don’t supply but people come and buy from me.”

    Asked why he was changing their labels, he said: “When the products got expired in my hands , in order to recoup my money, I decided to change the products’ details.”

    On the people he supplies the products to, he said retailers come to his shop to buy them.

    “It is not a factory or a warehouse. All my products are from Ghana. I bought the labels from somewhere,” he said.

    The Director-General of NAFDAC, Dr. Paul Orhii, said the current law, which stipulates a fine of N500,000 or 15-year jail term upon conviction, was inadequate.

    He stated that the new law sought life jail term and confiscation of assets upon conviction and compensation for victims where the counterfeit product was found to be the proximate cause of severe bodily injury.

    Orhii said the new law would also make counterfeiting a non-bailable offence, adding that a whistle-blower clause was also included in the new law.

  • NAFDAC workers insist on strike

    NAFDAC workers insist on strike

    The crisis that is rocking the National Agency for Food Drug Administration and Control in the past few weeks, over allegation of corruption levelled against the Director-General, Dr Paul Orhii, by the former Director of Finance, Mr Ademola Mogbojuri, has taken a new dimension. The staff of the agency has vowed to go on another strike over failure of the management to pay all their outstanding allowances.

    In a communiqué issued at the end of the congress of Medical and Health Workers Union of Nigeria (MHWUN), NAFDAC chapter said it was unfortunate that outstanding arrears that led to last year’s strike were not settled by the management, despite that they have the resources.

    The congress unanimously enjoined the management to begin the payment of 2014 Productivity Allowance (13th Month) one week from the end of July, and finish paying within a week or risk an industrial action.

    Its chairman, Comrade Ibrahim Attah said the organisation is generating about N9 billion yearly, adding that it had no cause not to settle the outstanding allowances owed workers.

    The latest face-off between Mogbojuri and Orhii revealed that  NAFDAC generates N9 billion annually

    Mogbojuri had alleged that  Orhii spent all the money generated by the organization to the tune of N9 billion annually on phony contracts to some of his cronies and business associates at the expense of the welfare of workers.

    “Before he joined the agency in 2009, the annual total revenue of NAFDAC was about N2.5 bn and he met around N600m in the account. Now, the total internally generated revenue is about N9bn and the agency owes about N5bn in debt.” he alleged.

    Against this backdrop,  Attah pointed out that it was  unfortunate that all along the management has been economical with the truth that the agency was broke, adding that with the latest revelation, all outstanding arrears owed the staff should be paid otherwise the union will embark on another strike.

    He debunked the allegation that the union backed the management on the ongoing crisis engulfing the agency, noting that there is nothing concerning the union and the award of contracts in the organization, therefore “we are neutral and all what concerns us is that all our outstanding allowances should be paid.”

    He regretted that as at the time of the press briefing a lot of claims and outstanding training allowances of the staff were on the table of the Directorate of Finance with nobody attending to it, this is an act of wickedness and poor administrative system”

    Although the NAFDAC Director of Special Duties, Dr Abubakar Jimoh said the entire allegation was malicious and lacked the element of truth. “Ordinarily, the publications would have been ignored except for the wrong information it would send to the public. However, for concerns expressed by the public and our stakeholders, we wish to state categorically that these allegations are baseless, false, misleading and frivolous because nothing of such has happened under the watch of Orhii as Director-General of NAFDAC,”

    According to him, “It is a curious paradox that the so-called director of finance and accounts who has been superintending over contract awards, payments and other due processes since 2010 would now turn around to make such false and disparaging allegations against the chief executive just when he was redeployed to another directorate due to his incompetence and insubordination”.

  • NAFDAC: The trouble within

    The National Agency for Food, Drug Administration and Control’s (NAFDAC) internal cohesion and inner peace have once again come under serious test, no thanks to the insidious activities of some elements with an axe to grind with its Director General, Dr. Paul Orhii, for no reason other than the pursuit of enlightened self interests. The development naturally may be shocking to many given its novelty – no staff of the agency has had any cause to go public with perceived acts of injustice in the six years Dr. Orhii has been on its driver’s seat, not to talk of publicly rubbishing his integrity that he has spent all his life to build. The English playwright, William Shakespeare, effusively captured the inscrutability of the human nature in one of his popular quotes: “There’s no art to find the mind’s construction in the face”.

    This is the context I situate the effrontery of a misguided group that recently mobilized some equally misguided youths to march to the headquarters of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Abuja to demand the resignation of its chairman, Ibrahim Larmode apparently for his refusal to do a hatchet job for the NAFDAC’s erstwhile Director of Accounts and Finance.

    The erstwhile Director of Accounts and Finance, Olusegun Mogbojuri had petitioned the anti-graft agency alleging acts of impropriety against his boss. On the surface such an action is within the ambit of any organisation’s operational framework, NAFDAC is, therefore, not an exception. However, the real motive is unveiled against the backdrop of the fact that the petitioner resorted to this action to protest his redeployment from the head office to the agency’s training school in Kaduna as its director.

    Nigeria needs anti-corruption crusaders to give fillip to the ethical agenda of President Muhammadu Buhari to rid the country of corruption in all its ramifications. However, the country does not need emergency anti-corruption crusaders deploying selective perception for self-serving agenda. The method deployed by Mogbojuri to prosecute his cause, exposes him to serious ethical and professional scrutiny. For instance, why did he wait until now and after his redeployment to blow the lid off the alleged unsavoury developments in NAFDAC when the man he is trying so hard to rubbish has been at the helms of affairs since 2009?  Why pull down an institution as great as NAFDAC and thus in the process strip it of its all important credibility necessary to command the respect and even the awe of Nigerians, international community and the social vermin that drug traffickers and adulterators have become?

    Anywhere in the world periodic redeployment of organisation’s staff is an organic part of its modus operandi. The NAFDAC is a well structured organization with layers of authority. Dr. Paul Orhii as the Director General is the Chief Executive Officer. In the agency’s scheme of things, he reserves the right to undertake strategic staff redeployment to enhance organizational efficiency. It, therefore, smacks of gross insubordination and insolence for any staff, no matter how highly placed, to resist such redeployment. When a staff resists redeployment at all cost including the use of blackmail to stop a mere administrative act, in order to remain permanently at a particular duty post, the message is clear: Something untoward is going on in that department. It, therefore, makes it more compelling for such a staff to be dislodged from his/her self created comfort zone by the authorities.

    I am aware a coalition of groups, African Arise for Change Network on the War Against Corruption in Nigeria, has alerted that saboteurs have planned to overwhelm anti-corruption agencies by sending them on wild goose chase through petitions that have no substance. Could Mogbojuri’s petition be the sentinel in a long list that would be thrown in the way of these agencies to distract the anti-corruption fight? Are proceeds from counterfeit drug barons now being deployed on rent-a-crowd stratagem to call for leadership change at federal government agencies, including those fighting graft? What implications will this have on the zero tolerance of the hard fighting Muhammadu Buhari-led Federal Government against corruption? Frivolous petitions would only serve to distract the focus of the anti-corruption bodies, waste valuable man hour, dissipate resources and kill interest in pursuing future cases. These agencies could also lose public sympathy as they will then be accused of being used for witch-hunting. This, apparently, is the expected outcome among those kicking up the dust at the moment. It is on this note that one must emphasize that without prejudice to the need to crush corruption, there must be concerted national effort to discourage the ongoing hit jobs being undertaken by elements with personal axes to grind.  

    And just as some people have noted, wrecking the integrity of NAFDAC for personal score could boomerang on the economy of Nigeria as foreign nations could use such as a basis for measuring the efficiency of the agency as a regulator. A direct consequence would be the loss of confidence in the wholesomeness of the consumable goods from our small and medium scale enterprises, which will in turn frustrate ongoing efforts to diversify the economy.

    The NAFDAC DG must refuse to be distracted this time around. Just as past efforts at rubbishing him drew positive attention to him locally and internationally, this current effort will pass away this same way.

    ‘Without prejudice to the need to crush corruption, there must be concerted national effort to discourage the ongoing hit jobs being undertaken by elements with personal axes to grind’

    • Ikhilae, is a Lagos-based Public Affairs Analyst

     

  • NAFDAC okays Hatchery Chicken

    NAFDAC okays Hatchery Chicken

    Amo Farm Sieberer Hatchery, producers of natnudO chicken, has been certified by the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC).

    Speaking during a factory tour by the Team of NAFDAC, the Director-General, Dr. Paul Orhii said the company’s production is in line with international standards and best practices and should be emulated by other players in the industry.

    “What I am seeing today are the kind of facilities we have seen only in developed countries and which I had prayed will one day be available in Nigeria.

    “This facility has now made it possible for Nigerians to enjoy high quality locally produced chicken which is guaranteed to meet their protein needs.”

    Orhii pledged that the agency will work with Nigeria Customs Service and other relevant agencies to ensure they record more successes in the quest to eradicate the consumption of unwholesome chicken in Nigeria.

    “I want to assure you again of government’s support to the local Poultry Industry and also of our commitment to educate Nigerians on consuming farm fresh frozen chicken.

    Appreciating the NAFDAC team for their commendations, the Group Managing Director Amo Farm Sieberer Hatchery Ltd, Dr. Ayoola Oduntan said it was the desire to provide good quality poultry products for Nigerians that led them to invest in building state of art facilities.

    He said: “The company has been a front runner in innovation in this industry, introducing first designer eggs – natnudO Super Eggs in 2010 enriched with Vitamin E and Selenium enriched with Organic Selenium and Vitamin E and was highly recommended for children, pregnant women and lactating mothers.

    “They are also great for all adults that lead an active lifestyle. The nutrients in natnudO super eggs works together to aid improved memory and learning capabilities in children, improved

    “Brain, and visual developments in babies and infants, a balanced immune system, good skin, eyes, hair and also slow down the ageing process.

    “We have gone further to introduce more affordable poultry products – natnudO Quarter Chicken and natnudO Half Chicken packs so that every Nigerian can have access to quality poultry meat.

    He advised Nigerians to encourage indigenous industries by patronising their products.