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Tag: Olisa Okeke

  • NAFDAC confiscates N5m expired drugs from Ariaria Market

    The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control ( NAFDAC ) has confiscated expired drugs worth over N5 million from a drug dealer in Ariaria Market, Aba, Abia.

    The state Coordinator of NAFDAC, Mr Olisa Okeke, disclosed this in an interview with the News men on Tuesday in Aba.

    Okeke said that the agency got information that the dealer ( names withheld ) was used to stocking expired drugs, changing their expiry dates and selling same to unsuspecting members of the public.

    According to the coordinator, NAFDAC officers investigated the shop, swooped on it and successfully confiscated many common drugs with March 2017 expiry date and awaiting re-validation.

    Okeke, who said that the dealer ran away, gave the assurance that NAFDAC would do its best to ensure his arrest and prosecution. “We are working hard to clean Aba; so, we are asking the residents to come forward and give us information on persons who do suspicious businesses.

    “We got a tip-off concerning expired drug sale in Ariaria, and successfully investigated a particular shop we heard stocked expired drugs awaiting revalidation.
    “When we went, we got many cartons of expired drugs earmarked for re-validation by the suspect; the drugs are worth over N5 million,’’
    he told the News men.

    Read Also: NAFDAC warns against fruits ripened with carbide

    According to him, the expired drugs include common drugs such as antibiotics, anti-emetic and anti-malaria drugs.

    “The investigation is ongoing but the shop owner has been on the run.

    “We are monitoring the market; immediately we arrest him, we will move him to our Enforcement Office in Lagos.
    “To him for a product that expired in November 2017 to be changed to November 2019 will be very easy for any clever artist.

    “Such information is not what NAFDAC will joke with,’’ Okeke said.

    Okeke also said that the agency had sanctioned more than 50 bakeries in Aba for claiming to be out of operations while functioning secretly and refusing to renew their NAFDAC licences.

    He said that some of them had operated for four years without renewed licences.

    “Hence, they have been given commensurate administrative charges to pay for failing to abide by the rules.’’

    The coordinator said that NAFDAC had also begun inspection of water-producing factories in Abia to promote good health.

    NAN

  • NAFDAC arrests man with 16 cartons of fake food seasoning product

    The National Agency for Food, Drug Administration and Control ( NAFDAC ), Abia State Office, has arrested one Samuel Akin Chukwu for faking a food seasoning product owned by another importer.

    The Abia State Coordinator of NAFDAC, Mr Olisa Okeke, disclosed this in an interview with our reporter on Monday in Aba.

    Okeke said that Chukwu claimed in his preliminary statement that he was not the importer but only an agent to an importer in Onitsha, Anambra, who brought in the fake products.

    He said that the original product was imported from South Africa by a Nigerian, who had been the sole distributor until the fakers went to China to produce the adulterated version.

    He said that the importer of the spice registered it with NAFDAC and had been renewing the registration with a record of good business until the fakers went to reproduce it in China.

    “After surveillance, we were able to isolate the warehouse and with the support of the Nigerian army, the warehouse was stormed and we arrested Samuel Akin Chukwu and confiscated about 16 cartoons of the product.

    “We were also able to retrieve some cartons from two persons who had bought the fake products and were leaving the shop on our arrival,” he said.

    According to the NAFDAC Coordinator, the agency confiscated a total of 26 cartons of the fake product from Chukwu and his customers.

    Okeke descried the Eziukwu Market in Aba as the centre for high volume of trade in food items, adding that some dubious persons used the opportunity to manufacture fake food products.

    “Eziukwu is a market that NAFDAC Abia office has its eyes on because of the activities of nefarious individuals in from time to time.”

    He said that NAFDAC would continue to raid the market until producers of fake products were thrown out of business to eradicate the menace of poisoning of citizens for the sake of monetary gains.

    Okeke thanked the residents who gave NAFDAC the tip-off and urged them to always inform the agency of suspicious activities around them.

    The product is named “Benny Powdered Chicken Stock” with the image of the head of a cockerel in front of the pack.

    The original product has a set of three sachets joined horizontally with the expiry date written on a black patch but the fake version has a set of five joined vertically and without a black patch.

    NAN

  • NAFDAC confiscates over N5m products in Abia

    NAFDAC confiscates over N5m products in Abia

    The National Agency for Food, Drug Administration and Control ( NAFDAC ) Abia State office, confiscated food and drug products worth over N5 million between October and December 4 in Abia.

    The NAFDAC Coordinator for Abia State Office, Mr Olisa Okeke, disclosed this in Aba on Tuesday.

    He said that the confiscated products include: beverages, food stuffs and drugs which were being sold without NAFDAC’s permission at night.

    He said that the agency had also sanctioned seven shops selling provisions in Aba and Umuahia because of the status of the goods they were selling to unsuspecting residents.

    The coordinator said that most of the shops were selling expired products to the public at night.

    Read also: NAFDAC take steps to ease cost of registering products

    He said that the Abia NAFDAC Office Surveillance Team got information from residents which resulted in the bursting of the sales of the expired and unregistered products in Aba and Umuahia.

    Okeke said that some unscrupulous business men were bringing into the state unregistered and expired products to making quick money during the impending Christmas period and warned residents to be watchful.

    “We have noticed that activities are heightening this Christmas season and NAFDAC has started feeling the heat.

    “You know that during this period, unscrupulous businessmen like to bring into the state all kinds of goods and products including unregistered, substandard and spurious products and those whose expiry dates had been altered.

    “This might be on the increase so we are alerting our citizens, especially those in Abia , to be watchful to ensure they are not taken unawares.

    “On our part, we have increased our surveillance to check the incidence of infiltration of harmful products into the state.

    “Residents, however, owe the agency a duty to volunteer information that could help investigation and bursting of perpetrators of these evils to save lives,” he said.

    NAN

  • NAFDAC nabs two selling banned Analgin injection in Aba

    NAFDAC nabs two selling banned Analgin injection in Aba

    The National Agency for Food, Drug Administration and Control ( NAFDAC ) has arrested a man and a woman in Aba for selling banned Analgin injection to unsuspecting residents.

    Mr Olisa Okeke, the Abia Coordinator of NAFDAC, made this known on Thursday in Aba in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN).

    He said although the woman had been released on bail, she was being monitored and would be helping NAFDAC to further the investigation to burst other dealers in that drug ring in Aba.

    Okeke said that the man who also stocked the products in his shop has been made to pay a fine of N200,000, while NAFDAC confiscated the remaining drugs in his shop and sealed it.

    However, he said that full details of the suspects would not reveal now as they were helping in the investigation and possible arrest of those in their ring.

    “We got some expired injections in a shop and also found that the woman who is the owner is a nurse and she is using Analgin injection, a banned product.

    “As I am talking to you now the woman has been arrested and have been taken on bail, she is helping NAFDAC to further the investigation.

    “We are trying to trace where she bought the analgin injection. Novalgin tablet and Analgin are banned drugs.

    “We also got a shop around Umuigbo area where we found analgin injection stocke; we confiscated it and sealed the shop. He has paid N200,000 fine,’’ Okeke said.

    The coordinator said that his office stepped up surveillance on faking and selling of expired and adulterated drugs and food products in Abia during the month of August.

    He said that the rains and bad roads have not prevented the agency from discharging its mandate.

    “I can say that within August we have done a lot of activities and we did not want the rains to deter us because we know the unscrupulous elements in the society, the fakers, would always use this as the period to do their wicked work so we did not want the rain to deter us.

    “Most times, wherever our car could not take us, we hire tricycle or motorcycle. There was an operation we had at Omumua road, our officers were able to access the place with a motorcycle and were able to arrest the woman who operates a maternity,” he said.

    Okeke therefore called on residents to report unscrupulous persons faking products or selling expired drugs or food products to NAFDAC to safeguard lives.