The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration
and Control (NAFDAC) has discovered a residential building in Lagos where more
than 100 sacks of empty alcoholic beverage bottles were stored, allegedly for
use in producing counterfeit drinks.
Officers of the agency's Investigation and Enforcement
Directorate found the bottles at 322B Meiran Road, Agbado Oke-Odo, Lagos.
NAFDAC said the bottles were destroyed to prevent them from being reused to
make fake alcoholic beverages.
In a video released by the agency on Friday, Assistant
Director in the directorate, Kunle Ojo, said the operation followed credible
intelligence about activities at the location. He said the building was in a
secluded residential area and held various materials, including empty bottles
of different sizes and brands covered with tarpaulins. "On arriving, we
saw different kinds of bottles stacked in this place. These are bottles covered
with tarpaulins," he said.
Ojo identified some of the bottles as belonging to
alcoholic beverage brands. He said they were suspected to have been stockpiled
for supply to people involved in producing counterfeit alcoholic drinks.
"What these people are planning to do, or what they do here, is to watch
the bottle supply to different suspected counterfeiters to be used for another
production," he said.
He condemned the use of residential buildings for such
activities, saying NAFDAC's intervention was meant to protect public health.
"This is a residential area, and this is not acceptable to government. We
are here to safeguard the health of the nation," he said.
Ojo urged Nigerians to report suspicious activities in
their neighbourhoods to the nearest NAFDAC office to help the agency curb the
production and distribution of counterfeit products. "We are calling on
all women in Nigeria, please, when you see something taking place in your area,
kindly notify the nearest NAFDAC office so that we can stop this menace, so
that we can save our country from all these counterfeiters," he added.
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