NAFDAC Warns Traders On Banned Products

The National Agency for Food, Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) yesterday warned traders in Abia against selling banned products. The Chief Regulatory Officer in Aba Special Zone of NAFDAC, Mr Gabriel Ezeaguba,   gave the warning in an interview in Aba.

He said that NAFDAC would intensify public enlightenment campaigns to sensitise the traders against selling unwholesome products.

Ezeaguba said that the agency would carry out massive campaigns in markets in Aba and environs with a view to seizing such items and arresting defaulters.

He said that more consumer safety clubs would be established in secondary schools in the state this year and also deploy NYSC members to achieve the objective.

“We are winning the war against unwholesome goods in Aba. “That is our mandate and we are doing just that, some traders are cooperating, while we are still getting some resistance from others,’’ he said.

Ezeaguba, however, said that members of the public were not helping the agency with adequate information in the bid to check nefarious activities of dubious traders.

“The problem here is there is still much resistance on the side of the populace. People are not coming up with information and sometimes when it comes to places like markets you also have a lot resistance”, he advised.

“The people you are trying to help don’t even know what you are doing so, there is a lot of resistance. “I think we need more enlightenment campaigns, we have been doing it, but by the grace of God, we are going to intensify it.

“I know that if the public is adequately sensitised, they can get more enlightened, so that the job will become easier, Aba is generally made up of traders and illiteracy is very high. “I believe that by the time the people get to know more, our job will become a lot easier,’’ he said.

Ezeaguba said that the agency would require the services of Youth Corps members in seminars and workshops for the traders and the safety consumer clubs in secondary schools. “We are going to use them more to ensure that everywhere people will get to know about what we are doing,’’ he added and attributed the agency’s success to the various sensitisation campaigns carried out in Aba over the years.