Xmas: fake, expired products flood Nigerian markets

Obviously, this is not the best of time to buy items for the Christmas. ‘But when is the time; you may ask’?
It’s not now! Why?  Many of the items you see in the market tables, shop shelves, stalls, super markets, and shopping malls are dangerous to buy for now. With the
Christmas activities in the air, all manner of products and items have flooded the markets and other outlets across Nigeria, just for quicker sales and profit margins. Companies, factories and importers and even exporters are capitalizing on the festive mood to smuggle into the country all manner of items and commodities that are of substandard.
Investigations also revealed that some of these businessmen went as far as bringing in expired commodities and items from foreign countries.
Most of the faked items and commodities in Nigerian markets today are foreign wines, tinned foods, and tomatoes, toys for children, shoes, fabrics, toothpastes, toothbrushes, handsets phones, vegetable oil, drugs, and women hand bags, travelling bags, kid wears, juice drinks, beverages, cream, salad ingredients, tinned fish and meat, clothing, soap, pampers, cosmetics and other sundry items and products.
The importers and their retail partners are making brisk business dealing on the expired items while those who patronize them go home cursing themselves and regretting purchasing such items. Mrs Elizabeth Nwosu was bitter after buying a tin of adulterated vegetable oil at Ikotun Market. She said the taste of the oil was far from being the original one she bought five months ago.
Akpan Uko claimed that he bought a shoe for her little girl only to discover after going home that the shoe had started peeling of its colour.
Christiana Elele also worried about the expired products claimed that a carton of tinned meat of beef she bought has developed maggot and was having offensive odour when one of it was opened.
In Onitsha, the business nerve centre of Anambra State, the Consumer Protection Council (CPC), this week raided the magnificent Onitsha Main Market in search of fake materials which are sold for public consumption.
Allegedly acting on a tip- off over a fake influx of Lux Premier Underwear, the CPC invaded the market and confiscated fake products worth about N5million believed to have been imported from China.
According to Head of Surveillance and Enforcement, Consumer Protection Council, South East, Mr. Uchegbu Chukwuma, the body was alerted by an Indian whose original products were being faked by an Onitsha based importer.
“Having all the information needed, CPC decided to raid the shops and ware house of the dubious importer who is now on the run”, Chukwuma said.
CPC Head of Surveillance and Enforcement stated that it would be difficult for consumers to differentiate the fake underwear from the original which he said was much more superior as the product were produced in India, but faked and imported from China.
He blamed Onitsha importers for their dubious role in choosing to import fake materials in place of quality ones to the detriment of Nigerian consumers.
He reiterated the readiness of the body in protecting the rights of Nigerian consumers and making sure that they enjoy adequate value of their money.
Mr. Chukwuma who had earlier held a sensitization workshop with electronics and electrical parts dealers of Iweka Road Market and its Obosi counterpart and threatened to raid those markets, including the Ogbaru Relief market in no distant future.
He advised the Public (consumers) not to hesitate to give adequate information to CPC on the whereabouts of importers and dealers of sub-standard materials
Though no arrest was made, the CPC in company of law enforcement agents were seen loading the fake under wears into a waiting Van.

Investigations revealed that some businessmen and women import faked products, presented in designs and colours that are almost the same as the registered popular brands.

They also have names that are spelt almost like the original products. Some of the imitated products include Nokia mobile phones that are presented as NOKTA.

Many of the wholesale markets selling these items are packed with vendors and buyers. At the shop in Okota, Isolo Local Government Area of Lagos State, a woman was seen displaying some items imported from abroad. The items were cameras, phones, refrigerators, Televisions, shoes, clothes, foreign wines, tinned foods in piles and all the items have expired. Some of the items have no label or any information about their manufacturers and origins.
Investigation also shows that some customers buy for the purpose that they can resell the products at much higher prices by placing a fake importing stamp on them.

A number of other cosmetics products such as shampoo and shower gel at some stores have also expired but they are in fact either smuggled or locally produced.

Some of the label on the items and products say it is ‘made in England, Italy, China and America’, but the manufacturer is in fact a local facility in Aba, Onitsha, Agbara, and Agege in Lagos State.

Fake cosmetics normally cost four to five times lower than authentic ones, depending on how ‘authentic’ the packaging looks.

A number of products, from clothes and footwear to suitcases and wallets are rampantly on sale in streets, hold-up, near the industrial parks such as TBS, Aswani, Katanga, and Vesper Market along Lagos-Badagry Express at dirt cheap prices.
Handbags and suitcases under the famous BRT terminals in Ikotun and mile 2 bus stop carried international brand names and spread in piles on the ground, and are sold at only N500.
“All of the products are Chinese-made,” said Amaka Udah.  But she still bought several items to take home to her hometown in Orlu while travelling for the Christmas. Hear her: “they are so cheap.”

None of the traders of these items have been arrested and prosecuted. The Nigerian Standard Organization and other agencies that monitor such items are none functional. The agencies have not caught any of the violators during these seasons.

Investigation shows that fake watches, cosmetics, crockery and shoes are smuggled from China and Thailand. The goods reach seaports at Apapa ports, from there; smugglers under the supervision of custom officers take possession of containers and send the material to their warehouses in containers. Fake T shirts and jeans of leading brands are manufactured in Delhi, while fake shirts and t-shirts are stitched in Malaysia from where the material reaches other parts of Nigeria.
From the warehouses, the material is supplied to different parts of markets and shopping malls in the cities.
It was discovered that some traders don't display many faked items of leading brands in their shops. But they have loyal clienteles who have been regulars for years and know how and where to get them.
During this season, six to five trucks carrying containers of clothes and accessories heading to warehouses littered all over Lagos State from there they are moved to other parts of the country. The patronisers of these items are mainly the poor, rural dwellers, college students and gullible people.
The fake goods are stored in warehouses and supplied to dealers, who supply the same to shops. Besides customs officials, are also involved in the racket.
During this season, counterfeiters are selling imitated items and shipping them directly to consumers making it much harder to track and seize them. Fake products are known to pose environmental, health and other concerns although it is highly profitable for the criminals dealing in them. Only in September this year, the Director General of SON declared their readiness to enforce standards in the electric bulb section by destroying fake electrical bulbs.

In Imo State, some of the fake products discovered to have been made with killer chemical substances are hazardous to health. Investigations reveal that a gang of notorious criminals distribute the faked products to the markets.

Many consumers who buy and consume these products, which include alcoholic beverages, fake body lotions and injection, claim to have been hospitalised after consuming the items, particularly beverages.

One of the victims, Chibuike Onyenwuchi while narrating his experience after consuming some beverages he purchased from Ekeokwu Market in Owerri Municipal Council Area, said he was “hospitalised for three days with severe abdominal pains.”

Further checks revealed that it was difficult to distinguish the faked products from the original as there was no striking trademark to differentiate both products.

Detectives from the Imo State Police Command swooped on their make shift breweries and illegal factories located in various parts of the state recently. Some of the items recovered at one of the factories at Ezinihitte Mbaise were adulterated injections, assorted wine, hot drinks, and Star lager beer, bleach and body lotions.

The six-member gang who are now cooling their heels at the State Criminal Investigations Department of the command were arrested at Owerri and Ezinihitte Mbaise by police detectives following a tip off.

The suspects who were arrested by police include Chibueze Ubah (36) from Umuobiagu Isu Local council Area, Kingsley Anyaoha (30) from Ideato South LGA, Emeka Adigbonu (37) of Uruala in Ideato LGA, Silas Awuruonye (65) of Umuobom Ideato South LGA, and Paul Okechukwu (35) of Umuoho Eziudo, Ezinihitte Mbaise LGA and Chima Osuagwu (31) of Umuoho Eziudo Ezinihitte Mbaise LGA.

The State Commissioner of Police, Muhammad Musa Kastina described the products as grossly substandard, saying that they were being produced in unhygienic and unregulated environments and sold to unsuspecting members of the public at the same rate as the original products. He noted that the products had caused many health hazards to the consumers. The police boss warned consumers to be wary of where they buy their beverages and other food items, saying that whenever they suspect foul play; they should promptly alert the police for necessary action.

National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), whose responsibility it is to check the influx of these products into the market, has relaxed in the last five years.