Posted by By TUNDE RAHEEM, Akure on
Men of the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) officials in Ondo State made a major breakthrough at the weekend when it seized a sixteen seater bus loaded with fake and substandard vegetable oil.
Men of the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) officials in Ondo State made a major breakthrough at the weekend when it seized a sixteen seater bus loaded with fake and substandard vegetable oil.
The substandard vegetable products were seized during the agency's regular official routine exercise at Ore-market in Odigbo Local Government area of the state.
Addressing newsmen shortly after the raid in Ondo and Ore , the state NAFDAC unit head, Mr. Debo Agbejimi said some of the products recovered from the suspects were Gino vegetable oil, Moi-vegetable oil and some unregistered vegetable oil products.
Agbejimi said that the products were seized because they were unregistered and unfortified with vitamin ‘A' ingredients.
According to him, NAFDAC officials had embarked on the exercise as part of the agency's nationwide mopping-up exercise to rid Nigeria markets of fake and substandard vegetable oil products that lack vitamin ‘A' ingredient.
He added that the raid was also carried out in order to ensure that vegetable oil sold in Ondo State markets are well registered and fortified with vitamin ‘A' ingredient, in line with the UNICEF standard.
Agbejimi also explained that before NAFDAC embarked on the raid several enlightenments campaign had been carried out to educate stakeholders on the danger inherent in the consumption of vegetable oil without Vitamin A.
Besides, he said that the Agency had also educated manufacturers, wholesalers, retailers on the need to rid the state off fake and substandard vegetable oil product that lack vitamin ‘A' ingredient.
Consuming such vegetable oil deficient of vitamin ‘A', Agbejimi said would make people to be vulnerable to nutrition deficient, noting that it could also resort in blindness, damage of skin, intestine track as well as open children to easy attack by diseases.
He pointed out that the officials of the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and control NAFDAC were attacked by some hoodlums during the routine raid
His words, 'Leader of the hoodlums whose name was simply called Babanla used his car to doublecross our men without noticing that NAFDAC officials had left for Ore police station'