The National Agency for Food, Drugs Administration and Control (NAFDAC) has sealed 13 illegal dairies and water factories in Kumbotso and Nasarawa Local Government areas of Kano State.
Its Kano State Coordinator, Mr Shaba Muhammad, said this on Wednesday in Kano during an inspection and enforcement exercise.
Muhammad said the agency seized counterfeit water, milk and milk products in a raid conducted by the agency’s Enforcement Task force in the state.
He said that the raid was sequel to the discovery of large quantities of counterfeit water, yoghurt and milk products in circulation in Kano metropolis and other major towns across the state.
According to him, the raid followed a month-long surveillance on activities of the processors of fake sachet water and milk products.
The coordinator explained that some of the factories were sealed due to lack of NAFDAC registration or failure to renew their licenses in the past 10 years.
He said some of the factories produced various brands of milk and milk products labeled them as genuine products from reputable companies in Nigeria.
“The operation of the dairies and water factories pose serious risks to public health and damage to the environment.
“We also took samples of the products for laboratory analysis to ascertain its efficacy,” he said.
Tamanuwa Andrew-Baba, an Assistant Director, Investigation and Enforcement of the agency, said the agency had deployed a team of personnel to conduct the enforcement exercise in Kano State.
He said the personnel were drafted from Kaduna and Lagos Zonal offices of the agency, adding that the team had seized some products and sealed the affected factories.
“We have made no arrest so far, but erring factory owners will be prosecuted as soon as investigation were concluded,” he said.
Andrew-Baba warned against production and sale of counterfeit products, stressing that defaulters would be prosecuted.
The team leader called on the people to report suspicious activities and persons engaged in illicit production of consumables in their communities and to check the circulation of counterfeit products in the country.