The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), said that it sanctioned 101 organisations for various offences in Edo this year. Unit Head of  NAFDAC Benin office, Mr David West, said on Monday in Benin, that 719 companies were inspected in the state in 2012.

West said the agency concluded the re-certification of the 120 water packaging establishments in Edo during the period.

He said the sanctions imposed on erring companies ranged from the arrest of the offenders, seizures of products, imposition of administrative penalties, to outright closure of such establishments.

“One of the major sanctions was the arrest of six persons who were marketers of unregistered Power Horse energy drinks, leading to the seizures of over 20 cartons of the drink.

“We also arrested some owners of water packaging establishments, whose factories had poor manufacturing practices,” West said.                  He said a sensitisation talk on the storage and the use of pesticides on beans was organised in the third quarter of 2012 and explained that the programme, which held at the new Lagos Road Market, was to enlighten beans sellers on the maximum-residual limit of pesticides.

“During the sensitisation visit, we discovered that some of the shops had beans whose pesticides levels were too high.

“We had to confiscate the products and arrest the sellers for further investigation,” he said.

He also commended the collaborative efforts of the agency and the Nigeria Customs Service, which led to the interception of a truck load of unregistered drugs in 2012. “The un-registered drugs and veterinary products, valued at N14.8 million were from Pakistan and China. And they did not come through the normal routes like seaports, where there are proper documentations,” West said.