A 16-year-old boy, Ejoboh Iroboh, has been arrested for dealing in unauthorised wine products, and using forged registration numbers of the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control.
The minor was apprehended last Wednesday along with eight other suspects, said to be retailers in the Ikorodu area of Lagos State by the state command of the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps.
The suspects were identified as Emmanuel Godwin (19), Ifeanyi Mba (23), Okechukwu Nweke, Emmanuel Mba (23), Emmanuel Chukwu, Kazim Idowu, Chibuike Ona and Mrs. Clara Akalazu, who was released on bail on health grounds.
According to PUNCH Metro, learnt that operatives of the corps stormed buildings in the Lucky Fibre and Oke-Agbo areas of Ikorodu, where the products – Princess Fruit and Merry Fruit – were being distilled respectively.
No fewer than 112 packs of the products with each pack containing six bottles, two generators, one water tank, one mixing tank, a pump, a gas cylinder, three sealing machines and stamps were said to have been recovered from the factories.
It was gathered that the traders bought a pack of Princess Fruit for N1,000.
Our correspondent learnt that Iroboh, who hails from Delta State, was an employee in the Princess Fruit factory reportedly owned by one Chibuke Ejike, said to be on the run.
He said his role was to fill the bottles and package them to look “standard”. He said he earned N2,500 weekly.
He said, “We live in the same area in Ijede and he (Ejike) is my brother’s friend. I have been living there with my step-mother since my parents died some years ago.
“He mixed the ingredients while I filled the wine inside the bottles, put the labels, packed them and took them to markets to sell. I am not aware that the products are fake because they have NAFDAC registration numbers.”
Twenty-one-year old Emmanuel Mba, said Ejike was initially supplying him De Wiper (wine) and Merry Fruit until recently when he introduced Princess Fruit to him as a new product.
“It tasted good in my mouth and since it has NAFDAC number and expiry date, I started buying it.
“We buy a pack for N1,000 and sell it N1,100. A bottle is N200. People who cannot afford to buy expensive wine usually buy it. I was surprised when I was arrested and told that the wine was fake.”
Godwin, 23, said, “I started buying the wine (Princess) two months ago. The officers came to my shop and seized 10 cartons. I did not know it was not approved by NAFDAC.”
Kazeem Idowu, said he only sold Princess Fruit and that there was no way he could have detected it was fake since it carried NAFDAC registration number.
The state commandant of the NSCDC, Gabriel Abafi, said the corps was on the trail of the fleeing producer and urged NAFDAC to swing into action to avert possible havocs that consumption of the wine could wreak on unsuspecting members of the public.
He said, “With intelligence gathering, we were briefed about a local factory making some wine. We swung into action and we were able to discover two factories in Ikorodu. We have invited NAFDAC because it is not our mandate. We are now after the kingpin.”
The Assistant Director of Intelligence Gathering and Enforcement Division of NAFDAC, Mr. Francis Ononiwu, said there was no way the products could be good because they were not registered. He promised that the agency would continue with the investigation.
