The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) said it sealed 18 warehouses in Bida, following the discovery of large quantities of expired food and beverage products.
A statement by the agency’s Resident Media Consultant, Mr Olusayo Akintola, said that the warehouses were located around Ndazabo White House along Minna Road, behind Bida Modern Market in Niger state.
Akintola said that the warehouses were shut after NAFDAC’s Investigation and Enforcement team acted on credible intelligence.
He said that the items recovered during the raid included expired non-alcoholic beverages, dairy milk, candies, bottled water and pasta valued at N100 million.
He said that some of those items were already packaged for distribution, including 80,000 packets of expired non-alcoholic drinks, 5,000 packets of dairy milk, 16,000 packets of bottled water, 28 cartons of pasta and other assorted expired products.
The statement noted that other assorted expired products were uncovered during the operation, and that the managers of the affected warehouses were arrested for interrogation.
He said that preliminary findings linked the facilities to a company identified as BY Ventures, which prompted NAFDAC officials to extend their operation to supermarkets owned by the same company in Minna.
Akintola said that additional expired products and counterfeit Goya oil were allegedly found, and that the supermarkets involved in the sales were equally sealed.
He said that the Managing Director of the company, Alhaji Yusuf Nadabo, was invited for further questioning, and he admitted ownership of the expired products during interrogation.
Akintola, however, stated that NAFDAC investigation was still ongoing and that appropriate regulatory sanctions would be imposed at the conclusion of the exercise to serve as a deterrent to others.
