The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) has apprehended a Lagos-based syndicate that specialises in the importation of a prohibited soap.
Prof. Mojisola Adeyeye, the agency’s director general, told journalists in Lagos on Friday that the banned soap contained mercury and was reported to have extremely harmful effects on the body.
She revealed that the syndicate imports the item from India and falsely labels it as made in England by utilising forged customs documents.
One arrest was made, and a billion dollars in illegal products were recovered, according to the agency.
Adeyeye, however, pointed out that unaware members of the public have been buying these products after they made their way into a number of supermarkets and beauty stores.
“Acting on Intelligence, the investigation and enforcement directorate in August 2023, busted a warehouse in the Trade Fare Market which was filled with banned imported soaps, including three trailer loads of imported Crusader soaps and Mekako soaps totalling 4,000 containers.
“During the interrogation of the prime suspect, one Chief Obi Alias Obuagu claimed to have bought the franchise of products from a company and presented an expired NAFDAC certificate that was issued for local manufacturing of the product after the ban in Nigeria,” she said.
Adeyeye reiterated that the product has been banned and not a single bar of the soap has been manufactured in the country since the purported registration in 2013.
According to her, the sample of the product was taken to the agency’s laboratory for analysis and was found to contain heavy metals identified as mercury.