The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control sealed two Chinese supermarkets in Abuja on Thursday.
The supermarkets, located at No. 40 Mike Akhigbe Way, Jabi, and No. 61 Ebitu Ukiwe Street, also in Jabi, were sealed for allegedly selling goods that were not approved for import into the country.
The agency also put on hold eight other shops at the Wuse market for selling aphrodisiac sex enhancement pills.
They were also found to be selling body enlargement creams and drugs for breasts and buttocks, including other toxic substances produced with dangerous chemicals.
Embugushiki-Musa Godiya, head of the NAFDAC Investigation and Enforcement Unit in Abuja, stated during the enforcement operation that the exercise was in response to consumer complaints.
He stated that the market value of the products seized during the raids was about N170 million. He said that the sellers of the products had declared themselves doctors and pharmacists, prescribing drugs for unsuspecting Nigerians.
“They also have some of these products they popularly call kayanmata oil. These people formed a market in banking premises.
“The agency got the complaint, and we cannot be here and allow such a thing to happen. We responded to that consumer complaint; we visited the place, and we raided quite a number of shops carrying all manner of unapproved products by NAFDAC,” he said.
Regarding the closure of Chinese supermarkets, Mr Godiya stated that the agency also acted on intelligence gathered from concerned citizens, indicating that some supermarkets are owned by foreign nationals.
He stated that these foreign nationals were alleged to have brought certain items, mostly food, into Nigeria, which were labelled in Chinese without any English translation.
Mr Godiya said the action was in violation of NAFDAC labelling regulations, adding that those supermarkets operated without approval from NAFDAC.
“We have seized all the offending items we found in the supermarkets. In one of the places that we could not evacuate all the items, we found we had placed the whole warehouse on hold; we have invited the owner for further investigation. We cannot guarantee the safety and the quality of these products; NAFDAC has not evaluated, assessed or analysed them,” he said.
Mr Godiya urged Nigerians to be vigilant about what they buy and consume.
(NAN)