The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) has sealed two Chinese-owned supermarkets and shut down several shops in Abuja over the sale of unapproved and potentially dangerous products.
The affected supermarkets, located at No. 40 Mike Akhigbe Way and No. 61 Ebitu Ukiwe Street, Jabi, were closed on Thursday following enforcement action by the agency. Officials also placed eight shops at the Wuse Market on hold for selling unregistered aphrodisiac pills, body enlargement creams, and toxic substances manufactured with harmful chemicals.
Mr. Embugushiki-Musa Godiya, Head of NAFDAC’s Investigation and Enforcement Unit in Abuja, who led the operation, said the raid followed complaints from consumers.
“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.
Godiya disclosed that the market value of the seized items was about ₦170 million. He added that some of the traders falsely posed as doctors and pharmacists, prescribing unsafe drugs to unsuspecting Nigerians.
“They also have some of these products they popularly call kayanmata oil. These people formed a market in banking premises,” he said.
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On the closure of the Chinese supermarkets, the NAFDAC official explained that the agency acted on intelligence from concerned citizens.
“There are some supermarkets belonging to some foreign nationals. 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.
He stressed that the practice contravened NAFDAC’s labelling regulations and violated safety standards.
“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. We cannot guarantee the safety and the quality of these products, NAFDAC has not evaluated, assessed or analysed them,” he stated.
Godiya urged Nigerians to be cautious about what they purchase and consume, warning that many of the products seized posed serious health risks.
