- Safiu Kehinde
Operatives of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defense Corps, Lagos State Command, have burst an illegal juice factory in the state with two female suspects arrested.
The NSCDC, on Monday, stormed the factory located at Alabi Onilegbale Street, Aradagun, Olorunda Local Council Development Area of Badagry, Lagos.
According to one of the corps senior officers who led the team, the factory is used in producing an unregistered BARKAS JUICE which the arrested suspects circulate across several states.
The suspects whose names were withheld allegedly used the service of minors in producing the juice which, as seen in a video shared on X, were packaged in cartons and big plastic bottles before being loaded into a waiting container vehicle found within the factory.
‘We are parading suspects and exhibits of illegal production, sales and distribution of adulterated and fake fruit juice, Not only in Lagos market but also in Edo state and other parts of Nigeria.
‘Two female suspects were apprehended. Their names are withheld. They are between the ages of 48 and 50.
‘They hire the services of underaged boys and girls between the ages of 15 and 16.
‘The products are found packed in packs and loaded in container vehicles. Most of these contents are full of high-level sugar contents, water, additives, dyes, and colourants.’ The NSCDC official said while addressing newsmen.
He further disclosed searching the portal of the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Contral, NAFDAC, to verify the registration number found on the pack.
However, no information was found on the agency’s portal which further affirmed that it was an unregistered brand.
‘We searched the NAFDAC portal for the validity of this product. What we saw there is that the products cannot be found. The name of this fruit drink is Barkas.’ He said.
While being interrogated by newsmen, one of the suspects claimed that the factory was established by her grandmother and was initially registered with NAFDAC.
‘This factory was founded by my grandma and product was registered.
‘But after some challenges, the factory was shutdown We don’t produce every day. We produce two to three times a year and supply outside Lagos based on the amount of order we have. It’s almost 20 years now.’ She said.
The suspects also recounted futile effort to register the brand again with NAFDAC with the assistance of uncle who works with the agency.
‘One of my uncles work with NAFDAC. He said we should forward the documents to him but he didn’t do it.
‘Meanwhile, he didn’t know that we have started working.
‘We’ve been operating for 20 years but we had challenges at a point, and we’ve been trying to gather money to register and do the necessary thing.
‘It’s not as if we don’t want to do it. We have registered before and it collapsed. We are trying to stand up and come back.’ She said.
The suspect however claimed that she only supply to Edo State where the brand has a retailer who buys in bulk.
‘It’s just one state, Benin. We have one woman there that we used to supply to.’ She said.
