James Sowole
The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) has seized food items and cosmetics worth thousands of Naira during a recent raid on some supermarkets and stores in Akure, the Ondo State capital.
The NAFDAC Coordinator for Ondo State, Mr. Wole Ojo, disclosed the seizure of the items during the presentation of awards for NAFDAC Consumer Safety Club winners among secondary schools for 2015 competition, at the Conference Hall of the Federal Secretariat, Akure.
Ojo said the seized items were either without NAFDAC numbers or without expiry dates expressing surprise that the items were seized from leading stores that people trust to be selling genuine products.
The coordinator said with the seizure, consumers should be patient when making shopping of items and check for necessary information on items before buying them in order to safeguide their health.
He said apart from confiscating the items, owners of retail outlets from where the items were seized were fined various sums of money as a way to warn them.
Ojo during the presentation of prizes to winners in both senior and junior secondary schools categories, said the agency’s operations are hampered by lack of logistics and commitment on the part of some personnel that were engaged to monitor and enforce rules.
“You can imagine that the Ondo State office of NAFDAC has only one Toyota Hilux Van to operate. How many places can the enforcement and monitoring teams go to in a day”?
The coordinator also berated lack of faithfulness on personnel manning NAFDAC desks in local government areas, saying the agency has received complaints of extortion by officers from people in various local government areas.
“Ordinarily, these NAFDAC desk officers in local governments were expected to bring services and enforcement closer to the grassroots, but the myriads of complaints that we received on a daily basis made us to close their operations in councils.
“These complaints come mainly from local governments in Ondo South and which if not controlled will affect the credibility of NAFDAC,” he said.
The NAFDAC Coordinator also disclosed that the agency had incorporated veterinary feeds and drugs into its mandate because some of these animals ended being consumed by human beings.
He disclosed that the NAFDAC was collaborating with Veterinary Department of the Ministry of Agriculture to enforce regulations in the area of veterinary drugs and feeds.
Ojo also said the agency had been inviting owners of veterinary feeds outlets to come and register with the NAFDAC.
Winners of the NAFDAC Awards in the Senior Secondary Schools category are Afolabi Kayode of FUTA Secondary School, Akure who came first, Joshua Favour of Greater Tomorrow Secondary School, Arigidi Akoko while the duo of Akinbamowo Yemisi of St Leos Secondary School, Akure and Adejumo Oluwasegun of Model Secondary School came third.
In the Junior Secondary School category, Oki Demilade of Model Secondary School came first, Leke Okeh Favour of Hallmark Secondary School, Ondo came second while Salam Abraham of Model Secondary School, Akure came third.
