Nigeria’s food and drug regulator says raids in Lagos and Aba uncovered suspected counterfeit drink operations, with Lagos goods valued above ₦2 billion and no reported links to confirmed illnesses or deaths.
The Oct. 13 raid at Zamfara Plaza, within the Lagos International Trade Fair Complex, uncovered more than 20 suspected illegal stores and led to two arrests, NAFDAC said. The agency valued the goods seized and evacuated at more than ₦2 billion.
In Aba, NAFDAC reported counterfeit labels, corks and packaging bearing established brand names at five shops in Old Court Road Market. It valued the packaging materials at more than ₦200 million.
At a suspected production site on Omenazu Street, the agency reported finding a drum with about 200 liters of liquid, drums of ethanol, dirty sieves, sealing machines and branded packaging. NAFDAC put the value of equipment, materials and parts of the site above ₦500 million; the suspected operator reportedly fled.
NAFDAC Deputy Director of Public Relations Christiana Obiazikwor told Punch that suspected drinks and packaging seized in Aba were worth more than ₦700 million. That figure covers a wider category than the agency’s separate valuation for packaging alone, but the reports do not reconcile the totals.
At the Lagos operation, NAFDAC Assistant Director of Investigation and Enforcement Kunle Ojo told Vanguard that investigators would trace the products and raw materials and seek to identify people financing or directing the activity. “We are here to protect the lives of many Nigerians,” he said. NAFDAC gave no timetable for the inquiry.
Reports on the raids do not establish whether seized drinks reached consumers or link the operations to confirmed illness or death. In a 2023 public health release, NAFDAC listed kidney or liver failure and death as possible effects of adulterated alcohol. It also warned that methanol in counterfeit vodka may cause permanent blindness; the current reports do not say methanol was found in these seizures.
NAFDAC’s 2023 operation at Aba’s Eziukwu Market covered more than 240 shops. The agency said it destroyed more than 1,500 cartons and valued the seized and destroyed goods above ₦750 million. That was a separate enforcement operation from the current raids.
In an Oct. 25 opinion column in Premium Times, Chukwuemerie Uduchukwu advocated mandatory scratch-off codes consumers could verify with manufacturers or NAFDAC. He also urged lawmakers to make counterfeiting consumable goods a capital offense; these were proposals in his column.
