NAFDAC seizes N2.5m sweets, candies

The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and
Control has impounded confectionery valued at N2.5m at the
Ogbaru Relief Market, Onitsha, Anambra State.
NAFDAC operatives, who visited the market on Tuesday, also
closed down 12 shops filled with confectionery, including milk
candies for children.
The Public Relations Officer for the agency, Mr. Anslem
Okonkwor, said the impounded confectionery was substandard
and not certified by NAFDAC.
He said, “The raid came as a result of complaints made to us
that people were bringing into the market confectionery, which
NAFDAC had not approved for human consumption.”
A Chief Regulatory Officer of NAFDAC, Mr. Joseph Idowu, said
the agency found it difficult to make the traders to cooperate.
He said, “We were unable to arrest even one of the culprits to
serve as a deterrent to others due to the posture of the
market leadership.
“One of them called the four fake product dealers that were
reported to us, and asked them to escape before we got to
them.”
He said the uncooperative attitude of the confectionery market
leaders was unlike the one NAFDAC had been getting from
other market leaders, who sanitised the market by themselves.