Image credit: toppng

By Ichaburu Ochefa

Some time ago, a friend of mine living in Lagos State told me that whenever he is on business travels to Aba, Abia State, he doesn’t drink water or tea neither in the hotel he lodges nor buys from the shops outside.

Curiously, I asked him why.? “

They are fake products,” he replied. He added, “From water to tea, wine, spirits, juices, etc.

“I further asked,  “So how do you survive while you are there.?

“I prepared myself from Lagos,”  he said. “But there are fake products in Lagos, too, and all over Nigeria,” I told him as a matter of fact.

They are at Oke-Arin market on Lagos Island, Alaba International; the  Oyingbo market … they are at Ogbete main market, Enugu …”

“I know, he cut me short and said: “Not like  Aba; Aba is worst in counterfeiters…”

What my friend told me months ago matches the NAFDAC’s recent regulatory actions against fake product manufacturers in Aba.

An official statement from the agency on Tuesday,  28 January 2025, signed by Prof Mojisola Adeyeye, the NAFDAC Director-General, described the Cemetery market Aba as ” the most dreaded and hitherto safe haven for the largest cartel ring for the manufacture of fake wines and beverages in Africa.”

NAFDAC further said that its enforcement agents, in collaboration with a large contingency of the military, DSS, and Nigeria Police, in a rare display of inter-agency cooperation, confiscated adulterated wines, fake food, and beverages valued at over N5 billion. ”

The current action of NAFDAC is the most audacious in the history of the market, with specific zones barricaded with iron welding and access gates locked to date.

The operation carried out was a follow-up to a similar raid that was carried out in December 2023.

Some of the nefarious activities of the counterfeiters included the manufacturing of all kinds of adulterated products especially different kinds of wine from a wide variety of brands ranging from the following: ·      Seaman Schnapps, Henessy, Four Cousins ·      Carlo Rossi, Jenney, Chelsea London Dry Gin ·      Schnapp Dry Gin, McDowells, Black Labels ·      Gordons, Martell, Campari, Smirnoff ice ·      Eva Non-Alcoholic Drink, Evra Non-Alcoholic Drink, Cartel and others.

As a consequence of the extensive operation, the agency raided over 240 shops and turned factories where the harmful products were being produced and marketed.

The shops turned factories are very filthy, using water from very unhygienic sources, harmful chemicals, saccharin, coloring, dirty recycled bottles, and cloned packaging materials of other brands.

The adulteration of alcoholic beverages by criminal elements in the country is done by mixing cheaper sources of sugar and starch besides grapes or fruit, among other harmful chemicals unsuitable for human consumption.

Over 1500 cartons of fake and substandard products were destroyed during the operation.

The street value of the confiscated and destroyed fake products in 2023 is estimated at over seven hundred and fifty million naira only. (N750,000,000).

The estimated value of products mopped up during the December 15, 2024, operation is five billion naira.

The products being revalidated and mopped up include: ·      Soft and carbonated drinks such as Fanta, Coca-Cola ·      Schweppes, Lacasera, Sprite, Hollandia Yoghurt ·      Super Commando Energy Drink, Feyrouz and Amstel Malta. Aside from drinks, notable fake home-use beverages such as: ·      Peak Sachet Milk, Cowbell Sachet Milk, Peak Chocolate Drink ·      Miksi Sachet Milk, Cadbury Chocolate Drink, and Ovaltine adulterated versions.

Before the evacuation of the products by NAFDAC, they were being produced in the market and neatly packaged and sold to unsuspecting consumers.

NAFDAC management appreciates the support from the Government of Abia State led by His Excellency Governor Alex Otti for his unwavering support for this project OPERATION CLEAN UP ABA.

The Mayor of Aba South, the interim management committee of the market, and other stakeholders have been working assiduously with NAFDAC on the project,  leading to another discovery of three major warehouses stockpiling expired HOLLANDIA YOGHURT for revalidation on the 22nd of January 2025.