Nigeria's National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control, NAFDAC, has uncovered an illegal operation involving the sale of fake chemicals, expired food flavours, unauthorised fertilisers, and repackaged pharmaceutical raw materials worth over N1 billion in the Alapere area of Ketu, Lagos State.
NAFDAC disclosed this in a statement on Tuesday.
The agency said that three suspects were arrested while three warehouses filled with dangerous substances were sealed during the operation recently.
Director of Investigation and Enforcement at NAFDAC, Dr. Martins Iluyomade, who spoke during the raid, said the exercise followed credible intelligence about a criminal network engaged in large-scale food and chemical counterfeiting.
According to him, the suspects were repackaging expired chemicals redirected for the use of food and drug production.
"This is one of the campaigns our agency is carrying out to protect the health of Nigerians.
"Chemicals are either precursors for other materials or are directly used in the production of consumable goods. Using expired chemicals means that the final product cannot be safe or effective. That is a serious health risk," Iluyomade said.
On his part, Director of Chemical Evaluation and Research at NAFDAC, Dr. Leonard Omokpariola, gave a detailed list of the dangerous items recovered from the site, including food flavouring, beef, chicken, tiger nuts, and others.
"We found expired food flavourings, roasted beef, roasted chicken, Chinook, tiger nut, and also active pharmaceutical ingredients like metronidazole benzoate," he said.
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